


Till The Noise Has Long Since Passed

by TrainThoughts



Series: End of the World AU [1]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: About to Die, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Seeking a Friend for The End of the World Fusion, Amy Santiago Loves Jake Peralta, Anxious Amy Santiago, Comfort, Eventual Romance, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Goodbyes, Implied Sexual Content, Jake Peralta Loves Amy Santiago, Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago Fluff, Joanna Newsom - Freeform, Light Angst, Mutual Pining, Original Character Death(s), Pre-Apocalypse, Road Trips, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:53:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 31,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23927938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrainThoughts/pseuds/TrainThoughts
Summary: This is it. The World is ending.Jake Peralta really couldn't care less about the impending doomsday. He'd known since he was 7, that he was going to die in a grand explosion.But before the meteor can crash into his life, nervous, bumbling, smart, pretty-as-heck Amy Santiago does, and suddenly, Jake realizes he has a lot to care about.Together, they discover that the end of the world doesn't mean that they have to stop living.[ Seeking a Friend for the End of the World AU.]
Relationships: Jake Peralta & Amy Santiago, Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago
Series: End of the World AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1794199
Comments: 36
Kudos: 77





	1. PROLOGUE

**Author's Note:**

> Title from _Good Intentions Paving Company_ by Joanna Newsom. Top-tier song by a top-tier person.
> 
> TW: the story will contain a few mentions about death, dying and general destruction, so please be warned. It's very mild, but it's there.It is important to take care of yourself. Keep safe! If you decide to read ahead, enjoy! Thank you!
> 
> A little about the story: it's not set in NYC. Jake is a cop, but Amy is not. They're strangers, until they're not.

TILL THE NOISE HAS LONG SINCE PASSED

PROLOGUE 

_Thursday, 8:30 AM_

The rays of sunlight peeking in through the blinds painted stripes of gold across Jake Peralta's bare torso, as he reluctantly yawned and stretched himself to wakefulness. 

He quickly reached out to turn the alarm off, its shrill beeping jarring to his ears, but, well, it was the only thing that could successfully wake him up each morning.

He woke up alone, as usual, his wife having already left for her gym class, or had an early call into work. (She was just as much a workaholic as he was, but she preferred early hours, whereas he was partial to late nights.)

He rubbed his face, trying to judge whether his slow-growing stubble warranted shaving, while he used his other hand to dig out his lone tie, which he'd thrown behind the dresser last night, as he usually did. 

Except, he realised with a jolt, it was _not_ a usual morning.

It wasn't a usual morning, because it was the first morning after The Countdown had begun...

...The Countdown to his _death_. 

(Well, _everybody's_ death, really, considering the fact that the Earth was going to be blown up and all.)

Sighing, he decided not to shave, grabbed a can of orange soda for breakfast, pulled out his car keys and his wallet from yesterday's jeans, and he was off to work.

As usual.


	2. THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS

THE PREVIOUS NIGHT

_Wednesday, 10 PM_

Jake juggled a paper bag of McDonald's in one hand, and a box of case files in the other, while trying to dig his keys out from the pocket of his jeans. 

"Gotchya - oh, fuck-" He cursed, as the box slipped from his hand, scattering files and papers all across the hallway.

He didn't notice the footsteps approaching as he scrambled to gather the files. _Damn, Holt and Terry would have his head if anything got lost or damaged, crap, crap, crap-_

"DO YOU NEED HELP?"

Jake flinched, startled by the loudness of the question. He straightened up, looking at the source of the noise warily.

He recognized her as a person who lived on the same floor as him, but someone he'd never really run into before. Not surprising, considering the number of hours he spent at work. She was a few inches shorter than him, with black, shiny hair pulled into a sleek ponytail, and she was clearly drunk. 

"I'M SORRY," she hiccupped. "WAS THAT TOO LOUD? I GET LOUD WHEN I'M-" 

"Yeah, yeah, okay!" Jake hurried to shush her. "It's fine, I'm good, thank you-" 

She helped him anyway, picking up a few papers that were at her feet, and shoving them into his chest, but not before trying to read them. Jake pulled them from her grasp hurriedly. _Technically, this was classified information..._

"HEY, ARE YOU- are you a cop? I wanted to be a cop, most of my family is in police service. But it never worked out for me."

She gave him a sad smile, and with a swish of her ponytail, went on her way, boots clacking on the tiled floor. He watched her as she turned the corner, and heard her as she cursed loudly, presumably because she couldn't find her keys. Jake was suddenly filled with an odd desire to make sure she was fine. He wondered what had pushed her to getting drunk on a Wednesday night.

But then his stomach rumbled, capturing all his attention, and after making sure not a single scrap of paper littered the floor, he opened his door, dreaming of Meat Supreme pizza, but resigning himself to the fate of sad burgers for dinner.

Sophia was frozen in front of the TV, a forkful of spaghetti halfway to her open mouth. 

Jake faltered. "Oh no, I got dinner too." 

She ignored him. 

He made his way towards her, hoping she wouldn't be too mad about the take-away. "How was work?" He asked, sitting down next to her and pulling out his box of nuggets.

She shot him an irritated look. "Shh! It's about _the Deliverance!"_

_Oh._ The Deliverance was on it's way to stop the Matilda. The Matilda, in turn, was a huge-ass meteor, which was set in its course towards the Earth, and apparently, if not stopped - _through_ the Earth. It was gigantic, and if they couldn't stop it, that was going to be _it_ for the Earth - and all it's inhabitants. 

Jake obediently 'shhed'. On the screen, the reporter continued speaking, with a tone of glee in her voice that didn't seem appropriate, considering the kind of news she was reporting. 

_"- sadly, all crew members have lost their lives. I repeat, the Deliverance has failed in its mission, and it seems that we have no way, of preventing the meteor Matilda from striking the Earth, causing the total destruction of our planet-"_

Sophia still hadn't eaten. Jake nudged her fork towards her mouth and she jerked her arm away from him, without sparing him a glance. To be fair, she _was_ listening to the deathday announcement. 

_"- Scientists at NASA have estimated that we have no more than three weeks until the meteor makes contact, and therefore, we have three weeks as a species, and as a planet to live, to be alive -"_

Sophia gasped, shakily putting down the fork and wringing her hands. 

She looked at Jake with shock written all over her face. He stared back with what he hoped was a comforting expression, but his mind was numb.

"Jake?! Say something!" She demanded, her voice bordering on hysterical. 

Jake hesitated. If he was being honest, he'd prepared himself for this possibilty, the very day they'd heard the meteor news. There was nothing they could do about it anyway, so why spend time worrying about it? Also, a part of him was convinced that if he didn't pay attention to the news, maybe it would never happen. We all have our coping mechanisms and Repression was very clearly Jake's.

He cleared his throat. "If I'd known you were cooking, I wouldn't have grabbed McDs- " 

She gave him a look, like she wanted to say something, but just _didn't know how_. Jake knew that face pretty well, she made it at him quite a lot. Haltingly, he ate another nugget. 

Sophia scoffed, then stood up, picked up her purse, and left the apartment, banging the front door pointedly.

Jake should have followed her, or called out to her, or begged her to stay, but he tried and tried but he _just could not_ find it in himself. He _did_ wait two hours before he cleared up her plate, though, just in case she came back. 

She never did.


	3. 20 DAYS TO DIE

_Thursday, 10AM_

The morning after The Countdown began, it took him longer than usual to get to the station, what with the deserted cars blocking the roads, making him have to abandon his beloved Mustang, and walk the rest of the way. 

The station was empty and silent when he walked in, and yet Captain Holt didn't seem too surprised to see Jake there. Though perpetually late to briefings and sloppy in his paperwork, Jake was one of his most sincere and hardworking employees, and a smart detective to boot. Holt had been surprised to find out about Jake's wedding, because it was difficult to imagine him devoted to anyone as much as he was devoted to his job. "Work is all I have," he was quoted to have said, more than once. 

"Go back home, Peralta," Holt said, with an amused expression on his face. Anyone else would have mistaken it for disappointment, or mostly just a blank expression, but Jake was good at reading his boss by now. "Use this time...wisely. Spend it with your family." 

Jake groaned. "Captain, not you too! What are _you_ doing here, then?" 

"Picking up a few of my things." He said, taking the framed photograph of his little family - him, Kevin and Cheddar the dog - off the wall. "Kevin and I are driving to Vermont to be with his family." 

"But you hate his family!" Jake exclaimed, rather like a petulant child, Holt observed.

"Well, _they_ hate me more than I, well, resent them, but...circumstances are different, now. They have invited us, and Kevin wants to go." 

"But you don't want to go?" Jake ventured.

"I want to be with Kevin. That is all that matters." Holt shut the door to his office as he stepped out, ushering Jake with him, who collapsed onto his own seat.

Holt stopped at Jake's desk and put his box down, right on top of the toys, crumbs and files strewed across it, pushing a toy car and a half eaten bagel to the floor. 

"Jacob..." He began, trying to keep a professional tone, but failing quite miserably. 

Jake stilled. "Uh-oh. Too emotional. Go back to being robot captain!" 

Holt smiled. "It was great working with you, detective. You are a great cop...and a good man. If- if you need anything, I am here for you. I want you to know that.

"L-likewise," Jake quipped, trying hard to mask the shakiness in his voice. Holt chuckled and clapped him on the back, before picking up his box and starting to walk out. 

Jake stared at his hands, reeling with shock. This was it. This was a _farewell_. He wasn't ready to let go of Holt, his boss-turned-father figure, quite yet. He spun around in his chair, frantically searching for words to say. "Goodbye, dad-"

Holt stopped in his tracks, slowly turning to face Jake. For the first time, Jake didn't have to work too hard to analyze his expression- it was plain ol' sadness. 

"Goodbye...son."

"Hey, you said it," Jake said, with a watery grin. 

Holt shrugged. "I was thinking it. Maybe in another life..." He swallowed and closed his eyes briefly. "Take care of yourself, Jake."

Jake knew that in the captain's world, this was basically a declaration of undying love.  
He bit his lip. "Yup."

Holt nodded. And turned away. And walked out.

Jake never saw him again.

For some reason, Holt's departure filled Jake with a deep hollowness that even Sophia's hadn't.  
He sighed and laid his head down on his desk. Holt's box had knocked down the picture of Jake and Sophia, but he didn't bother to pick it up.

Jake was twenty-three when he'd passed out of the Police Academy, twenty-four when his Nana passed away, and twenty-five when his mom did. 

At twenty-six, he'd met Sophia. She had been celebrating her Thirtieth birthday, by watching her friends get drunk. (Apparently she herself couldn't, because she had court the next day.) 

Jake thought she was pretty, but he'd only approached her to escape from Terry's constant badgering ( _You need to stop being so hard on yourself, Jake! Start dating, Jake! You want to hear about my perfect life with my perfect wife, Jake?_ ) 

Soon they were having a wings-eating contest, and then Jake was following her home, and then they were having sex on her couch, and then they were in a relationship. 

She was smoking hot and super smart, and okay, she was a, _shudder_ , lawyer, but she liked watching Die Hard with him, so Jake went with the flow. 

And then one day, Jake asked her to move in, because Terry kept saying, shouldn't they have done that by then? And then Sophia asked to him to marry her, because her parents were being annoying with their constant nagging, and Jake said yes, because the only thing that scared him more than marriage was dying alone. 

And now, by some cruel twist of fate, here he was, doing just that- dying alone. Jake was thirty years old, and he'd stumbled through two years of a lukewarm marriage just to finally die alone. Sick joke, universe. _Sick joke._

He pulled himself out of his less-than-happy thoughts and buried himself in a case file- _mission distraction was a go!_

He stayed at the station, poring over files -(it wasn't like he could go out and arrest anyone or anything. Were warrants still happening?) -till he was pulled out of his studying, by his phone ringing. _Gina_. Jake wiped his sticky hands on his jeans before taking the call. _Maybe she would be down for a drink later?_

"Hel-"

"Jakey! EOTW party at my place! Well, Milton's place, but it's _my_ party, so."

"What? What's EOTW?"

"End Of The World, dummy, keep up! Be there by eight, bring booze, don't bring your wife. Well, you can bring her if you want to. See ya!" 

"Gin-"

But she was already gone. Typical Gina. She had been his best friend since they were kids, and she still insisted on forgetting Sophia's name. She also insisted on borrowing his police badge and sidearm from time to time (of course he never gave them to her), but that was just Gina for you. 

At four, the power at the station went out, and it started getting too hot for comfort, so Jake packed his things and went home. His car had been locked in from all sides by other vehicles, so he walked back, passing throngs of teenagers who were out day-drinking and recording themselves do stupid stunts. 

He had just had the depressing thought that _at least they're not dying alone_ when he reached home, to find Charles on his doorstep, a basket and a DVD in his hand. 

Jake started. "Charles? What are-"

Charles beamed at him. "Its Thursday! Movie night!" He held up the CD. "Tangled and trout soup!"

Jake's immediate reaction was to pull a face at the mention of trout soup. ("Don't worry, I got chicken fingers for you-") Then he remembered that the Earth was about to cease to exist.

He put his hands on his waist. "Bud, didn't you hear the news? What are you doing here?"

Charles shrugged. "Yeah, world ending, blah blah. No need to stop our weekly hangs!" 

Jake had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "Charles, man, I love you, but go home. Gen and Niko-" 

Charles held up a hand to stop him. "Gen is painting a lifesize portrait of her and I making love in a post-apocalyptic land, and -"

Jake scrunched up his face. "Ew!"

"- and Niko is at Sewing class! He wanted to finish his project before, y'know. It's a tapestry of his life; from birth, to kidnapping, to - "

And what could one say to that? So Jake set up the movie and Charles heated up the food, and later, Charles skipped out with a "See you next Thursday! Oh, by the way, you're out of butter and cinnamon."

Jake watched him prance out with a sad smile. Charles had been his colleague for the last five years, and say what you would about him, he had an comforting air about him, that always made Jake feel _secure_. With a pang, he realised that he would miss Charles. He would miss his crazy food, and his oversharing, and his prying, and his dumb advice. For the first time, he felt distressed about the fate that was to befall them all.

His phone chimed. It was a text from Gina. 

_Bitch whr R U?_

He made a quick inventory of the booze in his apartment, before replying.

_Omw, cya in 5_


	4. THE END OF THE START

_Thursday night, 9PM_

It was as if he'd entered a totally different world. _Maybe the meteor had already struck, and he was in hell._ It had to be hell, because _no way_ would his heaven look like this. Gina's- rather, Milton's- place was full of gaudily dressed adults, gyrating to dramatic, discordant beats. He felt like he'd entered a dark HBO coming-of-age drama. 

He sidestepped two people who seemed to be trying to climb on top of each other, and fought his way to the kitchen, looking for Gina.

She was there, talking to a man wearing a fuzzy yellow jacket, holding a Ziploc full of white powder.

" _Gina!_ " He hissed, interrupting their conversation. Fuzzy guy quietly slinked away. "What the fuck was that?" 

She rolled her eyes. "Dude, relax, I'm only going to sell it! Nana raised me better than to _do_ drugs."

"Yeah, she raised you to _sell 'em?"_

"She raised me to be strong, sensuous, confident and resourceful." She enunciated each world like she was performing a Shakespeare tragedy, making sweeping actions with her hands. 

"Yeah, and what strength do you get from selling drugs? Gina, I'm a cop!" 

She patted him lightly on his cheek. "Oh, honey, is anyone anything, anymore? Anyway, this baggie is my ticket to an ideal death, fitting of Gina Linetti."

Jake raised his eyebrows. "Ideal death, hm? What's that?"

She smirked at him. "Laying on a yacht in the middle of the ocean, whilst being eaten out by -" 

Jake pretended to gag. "Okay, okay, alright!" 

She punched him lightly on the shoulder. "That's what Nana _did_ teach me, that everyone is entitled to a dignified death." Her voice became softer, as did her eyes. If there was anyone more attached to Nana than Jake, it was Gina. Her death had hit the both of them hard. She'd died at home, in her rocking chair, listening to Barbra Streisand and with cookies in the oven. Jake understood what she meant by dignified death.

Gina disappeared, probably before their conversation could get more sentimental, and Jake spent the next hour dodging advances from inebriated idiots before he finally decided to leave.

He found Gina in her bathroom this time, filling a bag with toileteries. "Leaving soon?" He asked, from the doorway.

She didn't look up at him. "Tomorrow. The deal is done." She replied, inspecting a bottle of shampoo. 

Jake nodded. "'Kay. I'm heading home, so..."

She paused, and Jake saw her swallow. He approached her slowly, and pulled her into a hug. 

She sighed into his collar. "Remember when we were dumbass kids, and we used garbage bags as parachutes, and jumped out of trees?" 

Jake chuckled. "Your arm and my leg paid the price."

Gina shook her head slowly, squeezing him tighter. "All we wanted was to fly away. That's what I still want." 

Jake pulled out from the embrace, rubbing her arms. Looking into her eyes, he said, "I get it, goose. I do. Be safe, okay? Go down laughing." 

She shrugged sadly. "Yeah. You too. And Sophia too, I guess."

Jake only hesitated for a moment before deciding to say it out loud. "Sophia left me." The words felt foreign, heavy on his tongue, but once they were out, he felt as though a load had been lifted off of him.

Gina's eyes widened. "Good riddance. You two were living on borrowed time anyway."

"Yeah?"

She grasped his arms. "I always thought so. Not your fault. Or your problem. She seemed to like you though, at any rate."

Jake scratched his neck. "Oh, well."

Gina ruffled his curls, like she used to do when they were kids. He'd always pretended to hate it. "See ya around, Jakey."

That made him smile. "See you, Linetti."

He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and left. 

He never saw her again.

He walked back home at a sluggish pace, lost in thought. _Had his marriage even been real?_ He'd rushed into it, maybe, young and stupid, astonished and pleased that someone liked him enough to want to marry him.

He didn't have time to dive deep into his musings, because just as he was rummaging for his keys, he was hit with an unsettling sense of deja-vu. 

The pretty girl from yesterday was walking down the hallway towards him again, boots clacking away as usual. She seemed more drunk than the previous night, evident in the way her movements were slower and uncoordinated. Jake supposed he should ask the _Do you need help?_ today.

He cleared his throat. "Hey, do-"

She looked up at the sound of his voice, alarmed, as though she hadn't noticed he was there. In the dim yellow lighting of their grimy hallway, he could only just make out the tear tracks that glittered on her face. 

Jake tried to put on a 'I-am-a-friendly-neighbour' look. "Oh. Hey, you okay?" Belatedly, he realised that it seemed to be too apathetic of a question, given their whole Earth-ending situation. 

She brushed aside her shiny hair and wiped her face with a shaky hand. She took a deep breath and stumbled towards him. "No, its- I-"  
She shook her head. "I'm an idiot." She was breathing heavily, like she was about to start sobbing. 

Jake hoped his tone was consoling enough, but he'd been taken aback by the intensity of her sadness. "W-what? Is-"

"I'M SUCH A _FUCKING IDIOT!_ "  
She broke down into sobs and Jake froze for a minute, but she looked so small, and helpless, and next thing he knew, he was putting his arms around her and rubbing her back. She went easily, weeping into his shoulder, so he made slight hushing noises, feeling slightly lost.

She clutched the front of his shirt and cried harder. "I've made a huge mistake!"

"Do, ummm, do you want to come inside?" He asked, weakly.

She stilled, swallowing a sob to look up at him. "Are you going to murder me?" 

He smiled. "Depends. Are you going to steal my turntables?" 

She chuckled through her sobs, and the noise sent Jake's stomach into a nosedive. _What?_

"Yes, please. If it's not too much of a bother. And if you have something to drink. I'm Amy, by the way. Amy Santiago. From apartment 21." She held out her hand.

He took it, surprised by the firmness of her grasp. "You've a nice grip for a drunk person, Amy. I'm Jake Peralta."

"I took a seminar," she said airily, making her way into his living room.

She flopped down on one of his massage chairs, and he sprawled down on the couch. He passed her a bottle of vodka. 

"Straight up, huh?" She asked, and without waiting for a reply, proceeded to take a huge swig. 

Jake, who was just getting up to bring them some glasses, took one look at that and sat down again. He watched as a drop dribbled down the side of her mouth and disappeared under her chin. She caught him staring and to cover up, he asked, "So...what's that huge mistake you made?" 

Her eyes immediately filled up with tears again, and Jake cringed, feeling guilty. 

She sniffed, and took another swig. "It's, just, the world is ending, and I'm going to have to spend the rest of my days alone, dodging my stupid-as-fuck ex, while my entire family is together! And the stupid mistake was that I could have been with them, with my family, but I chose not to!!! Oh, why did I let my ego lead me astray, again?!" 

Jake leaned back, amused at her passionate explanation. "Well, you could still go to them, we have three weeks..." 

She turned to him, a tortured look in her eyes. Her voice is hollow. "They were on vacation. All of them. My parents and seven brothers, and their spouses and kids- "

" _Seven_ brothers?! Wo-" 

"- in _Hawaii_." She interjected. "The last flight left yesterday. That's why I was drinking last night." 

"And today?" 

"Same reason?" 

"Oh. I'm sorry."

She shrugged. "Aren't we all, nowadays?" 

Jake shrugged back, unsure of what to say next. Amy looked very comfortable , albeit miserable, on his massage chair, sipping vodka like a pro. They sat in silence, each trapped in their own anguish. At one point, she turned on the TV. She settled on a re-run, and Jake, with unseeing eyes staring at the screen, didn't even realise when he fell asleep.


	5. ANEURYSM AFTER ANEURYSM AFTER ANEURYSM

_Friday morning_

Jake woke up to blinding sunlight and deafening snores. On further inspection, he determined that the thing making the noise, was the girl asleep on his massage chair. _Amy. She'd spent the night, apparently._

He stared at her for a while, wondering how something so small could produce that loud of a sound. He hoped she'd wake up on her own. For some reason, he was reluctant to wake her up. Could have been due to the fact that she looked so angelic and _innocent_ , her face smoothened out in sleep. He was loathe to disturb whatever peace she had found. 

The TV was still on, and he watched a news anchor interview sobbing families, until he heard choking and hacking sounds coming from his chair. It looked like Amy had swallowed a chunk of her own hair. Jake was wondering whether he should push her hair back for her when suddenly she sat bolt upright, eyes blinking in the bright light.

"Shit. Fuck." She muttered as she realised where she was. "What time is it?"

"Almost one." He'd been watching those dreadful interviews for nearly two hours.

She groaned, looking around, trying to locate her purse. "I'm so sorry, I'm usually so punctual about waking up, but when I drink, I sleep like I'm dead."

"Oh, that's fi-" 

"Its nearly impossible to wake me up, then! Once I drank so much at my brother's rehearsal dinner that I slept through the wedding the next day! My parents were livid." 

It seemed like Amy was a nervous chatterer, so Jake wisely decided to shut up until she calmed herself down. 

"- Anyway, I'm so sorry for overstaying, I'll go back now. I hope you're roommate doesn't mind that I stayed over, and went to town on your alcohol-"

That brought Jake back with a _BANG._ "Wait, sorry. My- my roommate?" 

Amy was too wrapped up in her own head, to hear the shock clouding his voice and she continued in the same breath, "Yeah, she's nice, isn't she? Is she living with her boyfriend now? They helped me carry up boxes once. Jeff- I think his name was-".

Her words seemed to slur and his vision seemed to be getting blurry at the edges : _his roommate- living with her boyfriend now- her boyfriend -her boyfriend- his roommate- boyfriend -_

The words floated across his skull, just out of reach of comprehension, turning his brain into sludge till he couldn't register anything anymore. Amy seemed so far away, he felt like he was going to throw up. _Sophia was cheating on him?_

"Jake. Jake?" She was holding onto his shoulders. "Are you okay?" She gave him a strange look. "Do you have a bad hangover? You should rest for a while." She helped him down onto the couch, and left with a small wave. 

As soon as the door shut, Jake grabbed the bottle of vodka she'd been drinking from, and _chugged_.

Much to his chagrin, he didn't die of alcohol poisoning. Instead he woke up with an agonizing headache, to the sound of someone banging on his door. He wanted to ignore it, but God, he had to make the banging stop, or his head would definitely burst. He wanted to die, but he didn't want to _suffer._

It was Amy. "Hey! You looked pretty sick in the morning, so I thought I'd come check on you. D'you need anything? Also, the phone lines and the internet is down, so if you were needing to use that-" she shrugged, sadly. 

Jake just shook his head and moved to shut the door, but Amy stopped him. "Oh, and I got your mail for you, seemed like the least I could do- "

"What?"

She smiled at him. It was almost as blinding as the sun outside. "Well, just as a sort of thanks, for last night-" 

Jake shook his head slowly. "No, I mean - where did you get my mail from?" 

She gave him an incredulous look. "From the bag, dummy. Where else?"

Okay, this was getting hard to track. "What bag?!"

"Jake, you do know, right, that our mailman, Scully, is like the laziest human in the world, and he just dumps all the mail for our building into a huge plastic bag at the bottom of the stairs?" 

Seeing his bewildered expression, she shook her head like she couldn't believe him. "No wonder you had like a month's worth of mail in there. Here ya go." She shoved a thick sheaf of envelopes into his arms. She opened her mouth to say something else, but was distracted by a loud noise coming from the direction of her apartment. "Oh, what the hell? Sorry, I need to check - "

And she was gone. 

Jake threw down the mail onto the kitchen counter before getting a couple of painkillers from the bathroom and washing them down with a can of soda from the refrigerator. He was wondering whether he had enough alcohol to stay drunk till the meteor struck, when a particular envelope caught his eye. 

Rather, the handwriting on that particular envelope caught his eye. 

It reminded him of pubescent desires, of barely suppressed laughter, of notes passed in Math class, of middle school dances. 

He tore it open with an urgency that was atypical of a hungover Jake and practically devoured it with his eyes.

_"What the fuck?!"_

He rubbed his eyes and read it again, the words swimming across his vision. 

_Dear Jake....remember me?...long time...divorced...missed you...remember me?...divorced...missed you..._


	6. RUNAWAYS

Jake Peralta was not prone to anger. He was not short-tempered or grouchy, except really early in the morning. Most people who knew him, would label him 'a pretty chill dude'. 

Very rarely had he felt the sort of fury that he was currently grappling with.The sort of raw _outrage_ one only felt, when one realised that _the whole fucking universe was conspiring against them._

Hangover forgotten, he stormed over to Apartment 21 without a second thought. He banged on the door, paying no heed to the pair of voices coming from within. _So what if Amy had guests. Jake had problems!_

Amy opened the door with clear annoyance on her face, which Jake ignored. 

"What the hell, Santiago?!" 

Her expression changed to one of surprise. "I- Jake?!"

"You think you can just come out of nowhere, and ruin my life? Three days ago, I didn't even know your name, and now in three hours you've manage to completely upend my world-" He spat at her, his face turning red.

Amy's expression had morphed from surprise to indignation to anger. "What the hell are you going on about? Are you on drugs?!" She wasn't going to take a random stranger screaming at her, lying down- 

"Hey, turtlebug, who's this bozo?" 

A lanky man with dirty blonde hair tied up in a manbun, entered Jake's vision. _Was that her boyfriend?_

Amy didn't take her eyes off of Jake, but she grimaced at the man's voice. "For God's sake, how many times do I tell you to QUIT CALLING ME THAT!" 

Manbun pouted. "But, baby-" 

"Jake, do you need some help?" Amy asked loudly, talking over her (maybe) boyfriend. 

Jake put his hands on his waist. "I need your help to understand why you insist on making my life difficult-" 

Amy scoffed. "Okay, you're making zero sense right now-" 

Man bun came up to the door to stand behind Amy. If she noticed him, she didn't react."Is he bothering you, sweetums?" 

Amy balled up her fists in exasperation. "Shut UP, Constantine!" 

Jake decided to take a leaf out of Amy's book and totally disregard the annoying blonde. "First, you inadvertantly reveal to me that my wife is cheating on me. And then, you hand me my stupid mail, which has a stupid letter from Jenny-" 

Amy's eyes widened with every word until she was left with a look of utter bafflement. "Your-your _wife!?_ Who's - who is _Jenny_!" 

Jake knew, in the back of his mind, that absolutely _none_ of this was Amy's fault. He knew that he was being totally irrational and just looking for someone to blame, and she deserved a BIG apology from him, but right now, at the forefront of his brain, was _rage_. And unfortunately, Amy was bearing the brunt of it. 

Man bun really did _not_ know how to take a hint. Despite Amy's rebukes, he still tried to insert himself into the situation. "Amy, I can make him go away, if you want-" 

_Jenny? Who's Jenny?_ "Only the _first_ girl I _ever_ loved!" Jake roared.

Both Amy and Man-bun flinched. 

Amy held up her hands as if to placate him. She had clearly realised he was a bit unhinged at the time. "Jake, listen, I'm...sorry?" 

Jake was panting hard, gazing at her straight in the eyes. She stared back, stricken, not knowing what to do.

"I'm-"

"It's-"

They both began at the same time. 

"You go first." Amy muttered.

Jake sighed. The shouting had calmed him down a bit, and the anger was quickly being replaced by guilt. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled, obviously it is not your fault. Please forgive - " He stopped speaking, distracted by some commotion from the street below. Amy's second floor apartment faced the main road, and the three of them went to the window to see what was happening. 

Jake was taken aback at the sight before him- the streets were full of people - _rioters_ , Jake realised. Some carried flares, some carried axes. They were chanting something, and intermittently stopping to hit the building or the ground or the trees with their sticks. Some people were setting cars on fire. They held signs ranging from, _MATILDA IS A CONSPIRACY_ to _THE GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO KILL US_

"They're crazy!" Amy exclaimed, looking horrified, the same time man-bun said, "Should we go out there too?" 

Both Jake and Amy turned to look at him incredulously, when the stone-pelting started. 

"What the hell!" Amy yelped, as a huge rock crashed into her window. Cracks spread across the glass. Jake and Manbun darted backwards, but Amy stood frozen in place.

" _Amy!_ " Jake hissed, just as another large brick came up to finish the job, the window shattering just as Jake leaped to pull Amy away from the window. She lost her footing and they both fell. Jake let out an _Oof_ as she landed right on his stomach. 

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry-" Amy said as she helped him stand.

"Are you okay?" Jake asked her. She seemed pretty shaken. 

"Wait..." Amy said. "Can you hear that?"

They quieted for a second, then- 

Jake gasped. "Is the mob _coming into the building_!?" 

The shouts and bangs seemed to be getting closer and closer. Someone yelled, "BURN THE CITYYYYYYY!" They could hear a thousand footsteps thundering on the stairs. "We have to go!" Jake said. "C'mon!" 

The three of them ran out into the hallway and down the stairs. The mob had reached the first floor, and Jake felt Amy grab his hand as they waded through the crowd. "Cover your head," he yelled to her, trying to fight the people attempting to push him in the opposite direction. They were throwing stones and using the sticks in hand to smash anything in their path. Smoke was rising through the air, choking him. _Fire._ He could hear Amy coughing behind him. 

"Constantine has a car!" She choked out. "This way!" This time she pulled him forward, till they were at the edge where the crowd thinned out. 

"Amy!" Manbun - _Constantine_ \- called out. "What-" He looked down at their joint hands.

"What the hell, Amy? You screwing each other?!" He screeched, his face turning blotchy.

"What?" Amy yelled as they separated immediately.

Constantine yelled something about _behind my back_ and Amy said something like _we are broken up, you MORON_ and Jake was fading out again, because Sophia was the one who cheated, not him, never him. _Did she ever love him?_

A heatwave reached them. _The fire was getting closer._

"Run!" Amy screamed, and Jake willed his legs to work. They ran for a short while, till Amy stopped at a blue car with a sizeable dent in the hood. "Oh, here it is!"

She turned to Constantine, hands outstretched. 

He shrugged lazily. "I dont have the keys."

"Damnit!" Amy yelled. "Oh, fuck it." She picked up a stone from the ground and used it to smash the back window. Jake could only stare in shock. Constantine seemed similarly indisposed. She opened the door, got in, and started hot wiring the car. 

"Get in!" She yelled at the two men. 

Jake got into the front, not wanting his butt to be anywhere near the glass at the back. "What - how d'you know how to do this?"

"Aaaaaaaamy, my caaaaaaaar!" Constantine whined. They both ignored him.

Amy shrugged, fully concentrating on the task at hand. "My brothers taught me."

Jake was _impressed_. "D'you know anyone called Doug Judy?"

Amy frowned. "What? Who? Aha!"  
The car roared into life and Amy put it into drive - 

-And then she realised they were totally boxed in between two cars. "Crap." 

"Don't you dare bump the car anymore!" Constantine screeched. "It's my manager's car! You've already done so much damage!"

"You don't have a manager!" Amy screeched, the same time at which Jake muttered, "That makes sense."

"Wait, wait, I'll direct you." He got out and started screaming. "Back up! Slowly, slowly!" Amy touched the car behind them slightly. "Amy what are you doing? I SAID SLOWLY! MY CAR- "

"IT'S NOT _YOUR_ FUCKING CAR!"

Jake could see Amy was about to lose it. The mob was almost upon them, the smoke was reaching suffocating level. He coughed, trying to hurry her along. 

"GO FORWARD, GO FORWARD, URGH, MY CAR!" 

"Amy, the smoke!" Jake exclaimed.

She seemed so flustered, poor thing. "I know, I kn-"

"SLOW, I SAID SLOW! AAAMYYYY! GO! NO, STOP!"

A sweat broke out over Amy's forehead. Her eyes turned watery from the smoke. 

"GO! STOP! GO! GO! MOVE. WAIT, STOP. STOP."

She braked so hard that the tires squealed. She flinched while Comstantine made his mind very clear on the matter with a few choice cusswords.

"I SAID GO! NO, NOT SO FAST-" 

Constantine was still yelling into the window, when Amy finally let out a frustrated scream and _pressed down_ on the gas, and they were out, obviously not without beautifully scratching the car.

Constantine was left behind, and Jake watched open-mouthed as he just flipped them off, shrugged, then joined the mob in pelting stones at the building.

He looked at Amy questioningly. "So...we left Man-bun behind."

Amy chuckled at the name. "He doesn't have a manager, I bet he stole this car from his older sister, so it's not even his own! Also, did you want to be stuck in a car with that _idiot_ for more than three seconds?" 

Jake watched her with an amused smile playing on his lips.

She looked sheepish, and said in a quieter voice, "I've been trying to get rid of him for a while, but he was just _so clingy_..." She shrugged.

"I mean...I can't say I blame you," Jake laughed.

"Yeah..." She breathed.

They drove in silence for a while, and Jake took the time to gather his thoughts. 

He looked over at Amy. She looked jumpy, nervous even, like her mind was going through a gazillion thoughts per second. 

"So, where to?" Jake said conversationally, just to distract her before she could chew her lip off.

Amy exhaled. "The mob isn't going anywhere, and I think our building's on fire." 

She paused for a few seconds, thinking. Jake contemplated her words. Technically, he had nowhere to go, but he couldn't help but think about Jenny's letter...

_Fung..._ his brain supplied unhelpfully.

"I was thinking, maybe we should go and return the car? To Constantine's sister? She lives in Houston." 

_We?_ Jake thought. Did she want him to come too? Jake couldn't blame her, he wouldn't want to be alone either.

Amy sighed at his non-response. "You can get down if you want, but Cosima is a really nice person, I've only ever met her once, but she was so sweet...she's been supporting him for years, and she kinda reminds me of my mom..." 

_There she goes with the nervous rambling._ Jake looked at her in amusement. For some reason, he found her habit very endearing. 

"Well, I was k-kinda wondering if you'd - you'd drive me to New York." Jake stuttered, astonished by his own boldness. 

Amy frowned, her eyebrows got all scrunched up. "What? New York? But that's like, the opposite direction from St.Louis!" 

Jake dithered. "Yeah, it's where Jenny lives, and you did kinda ruin my life, so-" 

She scowled at him. "Hey! Don't you _dare_ blame it on me! _I_ didn't tell your wife to cheat on you, and your high school girlfriend to leave you, or whatever she did-"

"Middle school..." Jake said in a sombre tone, a gloomy look on his face.

Amy rolled her eyes at him. "I shouldn't have brought up the wife thingy - it's just when you have seven brothers, you have to be ready to, y'know, fight for your rights, and that's why I'm so competitive - also, _stop blaming me for your sad life_! And sorry I called your life sad." She didn't seem very sorry.

Jake sighed, stopping her diatribe. "I just...I just want to know why she wrote to me after _so long_. The last time we met, was at a wedding three-ish years ago, and she was with her husband then, and I was with...my wife."

Amy looked unimpressed.

"Look, I just need to understand _why_. Anyway. You're driving. But, um - "

"What?" She looked at him curiously.

Jake scratched his neck. He'd suddenly had an idea, but he didn't like it much. Rather, he didn't like the people it involved, very much. But he _did_ want to help Amy. "I don't want to raise your hopes or anything...but I do know someone with a plane. In New York. And maybe-" 

Amy's face goes through a change of expressions so fast that Jake gets whiplash. "What!? I- really?" 

"Sorry, I just...I just realised? When we talked about New York. Of course, I mean, I can't guarantee anything, but- " He looked at her. He really didn't want to meet the plane-person, but then he remembered Amy's sobs from the day before. 

She was looking at him, eyes wide, mouth open in disbelief. "Deal," she said firmly. 

And that was that.


	7. LIFE IS A HIGHWAY

Jake moved to turn on the radio, but Amy put her hand over his arm. 

"Wait! Please don't! I don't know what he did, but the car only plays his songs, and once you turn it on, it won't stop unless you turn the engine off!" She said 'his songs' like the way you would say 'green snot.' 

" _His_ songs?"

"He was -is? - in a band. Constantine." She shuddered. 

"No way!" Jake snorted. 

Amy pulled a face. "Don't laugh! I don't want you to think that I'm a groupie or anything..."

That was definitely not what Jake had been thinking, but he decided to tease her. "Sure..."

She looked over at him in consternation. "I swear!" 

"Not a groupie? What's your excuse then?"

She groaned. "Urgh. I was drunk, and he wouldn't stop crying."

Jake nodded. "Been there."

Amy huffed out a laugh."It was at my best friend's wedding, and I was _very_ date-less. Things like that sort of put into perspective how alone you are, and how _not_ alone everyone else is, so don't judge me!"

Jake made a tiny sound of agreement. "I'm not judging, being alone _sucks_. And we all do drastic things to get out of it. Me for example, got married."

Amy grimaced at the hurt in his tone. "I'm sorry, Jake. I wish I could say that the guy I saw her with was her brother, or something, but I _definitely_ saw them kissing at your door a couple times. I remember, because, once, that made me so jealous, I drunk dialled my ex." She looked mildly disgusted.

Jake rubbed his eyes. "Oh, well, at least she'd already left me by the time you told me. On the day the news came." He added conversationally. Amy tsk-ed sympathetically. "My friend said we were on borrowed time anyway, whatever that means." 

Amy was silent for a moment before asking, "Didn't you love her?"

"I did!" Jake noticed the past tense and winced, but didn't bother changing it. _It was kinda the truth anyway_. "At least I thought I did."

_And I thought she loved me too_ They had a pretty okay relationship, they went on date nights every third saturday, she made sure the bills were paid, he made sure the fridge was stocked, they barely fought, which was an uptick in Jake's book. 

His dad had cheated on his mother, and they'd had an ugly divorce, leading to Jake resenting his father for most of his life. Sophia knew this, _knew_ his thoughts about cheating, and the fact that she _still_ chose to cheat on him left him with an ache so deep, no drug would cure it.

Had he been so averse to the idea of divorce, that he'd subconsciously resigned himself to a subpar marriage just to not have to go through one? 

Amy softly nudged him. "Well, the band has a song called, _À La Mode Pecan Pie_ if you want to listen to it."

Jake laughed loudly, surprising himself. "My wife cheated on me and I still think your life is worse." He stated, and she swatted at him. Shielding himself with his hands, they continued to banter like they were old buddies and not like they'd met days before. 

Jake felt free when he was around Amy. He felt like the old Jake, confident, laid-back, easy-going. A bit too flirty, but chivalrous as hell. He hadn't felt this unchained, this young since his mother had passed away. 

He smiled to himself. _What a time to feel better about myself. Right before we die._

Amy pulled him out of his reverie. "I know we're helping each other get places, but you don't mind spending a chunk of your last days on this planet with some rando stranger, do you?" She looked slightly wary, as though worried he would say yes and they would immediately part ways.

Jake snorted. "To be honest, Amy? You've had a bigger impact on my life in two days than my wife, umm ex-wife I guess?- did in two _years_ , so-"

She smiled. "Yeah, I don't mind either."

A couple hours later saw them walking down the highway, with glum expressions and sour moods.

"I'm just saying, you could have checked how much gas we had left _before_ we reached the middle of nowhere-" 

"I was worried about the fire, and _getting out alive_ , and you could have checked, too! Will you stop complaining for one second, I swear to God- "

Jake stuck his tongue out at her. He wasn't too bothered about their situation- the situation being that they'd run out of gas, in the middle of an empty area with nothing around for miles, just as the sun was about to set - he just liked riling her up.

And riled up she was. Looking behind her back every two seconds to see if any vehicle was approaching, pressing the buttons on her now-useless phone. She even walked like she was nervous, something Jake didnt even know was possible until he met her. 

He was too busy staring at her, which is why he didnt notice the sound of tires speeding across the asphalt, until she squealed, and threw herself into the middle of the road. 

He stood there, paralyzed with fear, for a second before he found his voice. "AMY!!" He screamed. "WHAT THE FUCK!?!"

The vehicle, an old beaten-up black pickup truck, rolled to a stop a few feet before them. 

"ARE YOU CRAZY!? YOU JUST THREW YOURSELF IN FRONT OF A TRUCK-" 

"I'M SORRY!! IT WAS STUPID BUT I HAD TO MAKE SURE IT STOPPED!" She yelled back at him. "What if we walk for hours and there's no sign of civilization and we get dehydration and die?"

"What?" Jake said, incredulously. 

"Sorry, I just get really anxious sometimes, and then I can't think straight." Amy said softly, with a hint of guilt. 

Jake wasn't surprised, he had been wondering, they way she bit her nails and pulled at her clothes when she was even slightly flustered was kind of suggestive. 

"Its okay, I understand. Just- I was really scared, don't do it again!" 

"Awwww, you're worried about me!"

Jake scoffed. "I just don't like the sight of blood."

Amy gave him a quizzical look. "Aren't you a detective?" 

"Yeah, and?"

The driver, who'd apparently been watching this exchange with a great deal of interest, finally approached them. 

He stood in front of them, looking them up and down. Jake tried to copy his stance.

"Y'all need a ride?" He jerked his neck towards his truck. 

'He' was a middle-aged man with red whiskers and a balding head. His name was Lohank, and he was headed to 'meet his destiny' whatever that meant. 

"You'll need to get into the front, the both of you. The back is a bit full."

Jake turned to the backseat. It contained tarp, several shovels, along with a chainsaw, and a myriad of other construction equipment.

_What_ had they gotten themselves into? He looked at Amy with a 'the fuck' expression, but she just looked so happy to finally have found a ride that Jake didn't have the heart to worry her again. He watched as she climbed in, and hoping they weren't being super dumb by getting into a stranger's truck, he pulled himself into the seat next to her.

"So where you goin'?"

"Places." Jake said breezily. If Lohank didn't _give_ a straight answer, he wouldn't be getting one. 

Lohank let out an almighty burp. Jake could practically hear Amy's revulsion. "Oh, aren't we all? Suddenly, everyone's headed somewhere. Last wishes, must be."

Jake shook his head. "Yeah, I guess..."

They fell into silence, Lohank tunelessly humming. Jake noticed Amy eyeing the backseat a couple of times, so he tried to pick up the conversation to distract her. 

"I'm a cop." Jake said, loudly, as if to drive the point home. Lohank was _creepy_. "What about you?"

"Oh, well, see, I worked the night shift at the gun factory, y'know the one? An' it was me and my wife Nancy, and our dog, Cinnamon. Oh, she was so sweet, so mellow-"

"Your wife?"

"Nah, Cinnamon. They're both gone now." He sighed heavily. 

"Oh no..."

"Yeah, its just me. It's been that way for a while now, to be honest. Two years ago, my wife fell down the stairs, running after Cinnamon. She broke her back and got addicted to painkillers, and we kept fighting about it. I kept telling her my salary couldn't afford an addiction. And one night after a fight, I stormed out of the house and left the door open. Cinnamon ran out into the street and got hit by a truck." 

He hit the steering wheel hard, and Amy shifted away from him, closer to Jake. 

"- And my wife left me after that, and then three months ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. Prostate. And then this Matilda girl comes in to scare us all, eh?" 

"I'm sorry-" Amy squeaked, and Lohank turned to her, boring his eyes into hers. 

"Well, ma'am, that's why you gotta be nice to everyone, you never know what they're going through."

The words were fine by themselves, but were spoken in such a menacing tone that Amy could only stare back at him, eyes wide. Jake had to resist the urge to rub her back soothingly. 

"Yes." She finally blurted, and wisely, none of them spoke for the rest of the ride.

('Cept for the time Jake saw a horse, and then of course he had to point and say "Horse!") 

(Amy was not amused.)

(Jake said _Horse!_ in his head for the rest of the ride.)


	8. OF BODIES AND BETS

At the break of dawn, without warning, Lohank stopped the truck. They lurched forward in their seats, and Amy caught hold of Jake around the waist to prevent him crashing into the dashboard. 

"So..." Lohank said, looking at them expectantly. They stared back at him in utter confusion. 

Jake looked around. They were next to a large open field, dotted by a few large trees. Other than that...nothing.

Lohank slapped the steering wheel. "Well, then, I'll be right back. Need to...as they say...empty the snake." 

Their confusion intensified.

"Y'know, squeeze a lemon, errm, flood the cave?"

"Urgh," Jake was grossed out, but the look of bewilderment on Amy's face almost made him laugh. "Just go and pee, man."

Lohank shrugged. "You comin'?" He asked, leaning sideways while trying to fit the key in his pocket, causing Amy to move back into Jake. He noted, with a blush, that her arms were still clutching his shirt.

"N-no." Amy stuttered out, looking nauseous. He saluted them and hobbled off towards the field.

"God, what a weirdo," Amy exclaimed. "Let's get off as soon as we can, I swear-" 

"I bet Constantine doesn't seem so bad now, does he?" Jake joked, teasing her. She looked cute when she was annoyed. 

"Shut up," she whined, and tried to poke him. He moved fast and grabbed her hand before she could poke him, but the speed caused him to pull her towards him - they froze for a second, faces mere inches away from each other before they came to their senses.

"Oh, oops-" 

"No, its, I-" 

They separated, clearly flustered.

"I think I need to go pee too...so-" Jake mumbled.

"Yeah-"

"Ummm, do you..."

"Oh, no, nope."

"Okay, I'll -" He opened the door and stepped out, surprised to aee her following him.

"I'll just stretch my legs for a bit-" She explained.

"Oh, yeah, of course."

Jake walked away, wincing from the most awkward conversation in his life, looking for a tree to hide behind. He didn't really have to pee, he'd gone that morning, but anything to get away from Amy.

He realised with a pang that if she hadn't moved away, he'd have probably kissed her. He _wanted_ to kiss her. 

_Not the time_ , he reminded himself. They were essentially strangers, they were probably hitchhiking with a serial killer, they were on the way to meet a crush of his. Also, there was that part where they were going to die in twenty days and were dealing with massive emotional upheavals.

He sighed, leaning against a tree. Why did his life have to become an adventure _now_? What about all the times he'd prayed for it as a kid? "Stupid universe," he grumbled, and slowly started walking back to the truck. 

He could see Amy and Lohank talking. On closer inspection, he could see it was mostly Lohank talking and Amy looking shell-shocked. Worried, he started to jog- 

It happened so fast that he couldn't believe his eyes, the shock making him stand still in place. Amy's scream cut through the air and he started running.

A black merc had just zoomed past them, and in the split second it took to cross the truck, a window had opened, and a gun had pointed out, and- 

"They shot him! They SHOT him!!" Amy screeched, hopping in place, hands over her ears, eyes screwed shut. 

"What- who was it?!" He panted, staring at the body in shock, his detective instincts slow to click in. Shaking himself, he knelt to the ground. "Can't find a pulse...and he's not breathing." The wound, on his chest wall looked small, but the exit wound must have been bad, because the man was lying in a pool of blood. "...Yeah, he's a goner."

Amy had stopped jumping and was now leaning on the car, her legs seconds from buckling. "Oh my God, I just realised what he was talking about-"

"What?" Jake asked, distracted by the now-dead driver.

Amy began to pace, flustered. "Before you got here! He was all like 'I know who you are' and 'just get it over with' and 'we were good at pretending but I was twitchy and your eyes looked dead-'"

Jake frowned. "What? Dead eyes? I'm just sleepy! _You_ napped when I was driving-"

Amy's slapped her forehead. "-And of course, that's what all that stuff in the backseat is for!" She was talking to the sky, gesturing as though the sky would respond. 

Jake slowly stood. "For what, Amy?!"

Finally, she spared him a glance. "He thought were those assassins for hire!" At his flabbergasted look, she hastened to explain, "I saw an advert when we were leaving town. People who don't want to spend their time waiting for doomsday, could sign up, and then be killed when they were least expecting it-"

Jake kicked a lone soda can lying on the roadside. "What? Why would anyone want that?"

Amy huffed out a laugh, rubbing her arms like she was cold. "Some people get tired of waiting," she murmured, and looked at him with a strange expression on her face.

Jake didn't know what to say, so he just went to stand next to her. Silence befell them as they stared at the dead man. 

Amy was the first to speak. "So..."

"So."

And then, as though they could read each other's minds, they turned to the shovels in the backseat and then to each other. Amy shrugged. 

They covered the body in tarp before carrying it to the field, trying very hard to avoid getting bloodstains on their clothes. Amy spent fifteen minutes searching for the right spot before Jake put his foot down. "C'mon, just pick one!"

"It has to be easy to dig!"

Jake rolled his eyes. "Look at this one right here."

Amy inspected it. "No." 

Jake groaned, and followed her around till she found a spot she was satisfied with.

They began to shovel. Jake, not being a fan of physical labour, only lasted for five shovelfulls. Then he leaned against his shovel and watched Amy work. She'd taken her jacket off and Jake watched the muscles in her upper arms ripple and move as she lifted the mud and threw it behind her. It was slightly mesmerizing.

"Hey, butthead! You're supposed to be doing this too, you know!"

Jake whined, "But it's haaaaard." 

Amy looked like she wanted to hit him in the face with the shovel. She definitely had the upper body strength to do major damage.

"Fiiiine." He muttered.

"Noodle arms!" she spat at him. 

"Hey, you take that back!"

Amy narrowed her eyes. "Make me." Her voice dipped low, dangerously low, and Jake could feel a shudder run down his spine.

He tried to put on a similar expression. "Oh, is that how it is?"

Amy smirked at him, clearly seeing right through his false bravado. "Mmhmm. Let's start from this spot." She pointed to rhe hole she'd already made, "and work in opposite directions. Whoever digs three feet from here, first, wins."She took out a measuring tape from her pocket. "Luckily, Lohank left us a lot of tools."

"Making bets to get work done? A woman after my own heart."

"You wish, Peralta." Amy grinned.

Jake winked at her. "Loser has to drive?"

She walked up to him to shake his hand. "Done." 

"Damn, do you normally shake hands like this? It's borderline torture! "

"Only with wussies who crib about their work." She started shovelling and with a groan, Jake copied her.

Obviously, Amy won. 

By the time she was done, the sun was directly overhead, and it was getting hot. He briefly contemplated taking his shirt off, but it was already pretty sweaty anyway. Amy sat down and leaned back on her elbows, watching Jake groan and moan his way through the last half-foot. 

Afterwards, he collapsed next to her. "My arms," he grumbled. 

"Awwww," she said, slapping him on the shoulder. Jake suspected it was meant to be a pat on the back, but his sore and tired body registered a sharp hit. 

"If it makes you feel better, you'd have had to drive, either way." She rubbed his back. _He'd probably flinched too hard at her pat and now she thought he was a wimp._

He looked at her in confusion. "What? Why?!"

"I can't drive stick. C'mon, let's go."

They trudged back to the truck, sweaty and red-faced, arguing the whole way.

"Why did you make the bet if you can't drive stick? Not fair, Santiago-" 

Amy gave him a smug look. "I mean, it was your idea, and I was being smart. Why should I bet something that I could actually lose?" 

"Because its called _playing fair_ , you cheat! What if I had won and I'd refused to drive?" 

Amy scoffed. "Damn, you're a sore loser. Anyway, you have noodle arms, you never could have won -" She flexed her bicep in his face, so he swatted it out of his way. She stuck her tongue out at him. "- or refused to drive, I'm sure you're in a hurry to get to Jenny."

Jake faux-gasped "Psshawww who's Jenny?! I'll have you know, I take my bets very very seriously-"

"A man after my own heart," she parroted in a sing-song voice, clearly teasing him. 

Jake rolled his eyes. "Fuck off Santiago. Gimme the keys."

She stopped. "I....I don't have the keys?" 

_...Well, crap_. 

They looked back to the grave they'd taken the better part of the morning and afternoon to dig.

"Fuck," said Amy.

They figured hot wiring the car would take lesser time. 

Jake watched as she washed her hands off with a bottle of water they found in the truck. "Also, if we dig him up, we'll _both_ have to do work and this is just you, so..."

In reponse, she purposely stepped on his foot as she crossed him to climb into the driver's seat. 

"Ouch. Ruuuuude." 

He held up a flashlight from Lohank's collection and marvelled at her nimble fingers as they tinkered about in the car.

"Are you _sure_ you dont know any Doug Judy?" He asked suspiciously.

After the engine switched on, they switched seats so Jake could drive. 

"Your brothers taught you to jack a car but not drive shift?" He muttered incredulously. 

That got a loud laugh. "We had priorities." 

And then they were on their way again.

Amy got comfortable, putting her feet up on the dash. "Who is this Doug Judy anyway?"

Jake sighed dramatically. "My arch nemesis." 

Amy arched her eyebrows.

"Yeah, I've been trying to get him for five years, but the bastard always escapes. I mean, I think we're kinda...friends now? I don't know. Frenemies? Damn, I'll miss him." 

She shook her head with a smile on her face. "Got any cool cop stories?" She asked, and if Jake wasn't driving, he'd have rubbed his hands. _Cop stories were his love language._

Amy was a great listener. She gasped, laughed and frowned in the right places. He had a lot of stories to tell, considering most of his friends were cops and hence, not interested in the stories; Sophia was a lawyer and not responsive and sympathetic, and Gina was very rarely interested in other people. He'd solved loads of interesting, gruesome and some downright terrible cases, and Amy had just handed him the license to brag. _Showtime._

"...and I got every single one of them, except Freddy Maliardi, and-" 

Amy, who was leaning back in her seat, nodding along to his tale, suddenly shot up and flung an arm out at him. "Jake! LOOK!"


	9. A COP AND A NERD WALK INTO A BAR

Jake tensed immediately, expecting another Lohank-style assassination. "What?!" 

"Is- is that a _bar_??"

They'd been so wrapped up in conversation that they hadn't realised they'd entered a small town. And now, on their right, was a small building with the words SHAWS BAR emblazoned in neon lighting across the front.

"Nachos!" Jake gasped. "Beer!"

"Toilets with closed doors! Running water!" Amy exclaimed. 

They parked in a tiny lot next to the bar, and made their way in, buzzing with excitement.

It was crowded as hell. Seemed like the entire town and their mother were in attendance tonight, screaming and laughing raucously. A conga line was making it's way through the small space. The lights were few, but extra bright. The effect was jarring, and the atmosphere _oozed_ crazy.

"Whoa..." Amy gulped.

"I don't think we're going to find an empty table." Jake ventured.

The bar was in the middle of the space, barely visible through the crowd. They tried to fight their way to it. Amy pushed away a man in a tiger costume who purred in her face. "Dis _gus_ ting," she muttered darkly. 

They both saw it at the same time- two empty stools at the bar -and exchanging wild grins, they rushed toward it- just to be thwarted by a man in a tank top. 

"Awww, crap!" Jake whined. Next to him, Amy stomped her foot.

They quickly found out the reason for that part being empty- no sooner had the man leaned over the bartop, and said, "Hey, sweetheart-", than the bartender - a woman with wild black curls, wearing a black leather jacket, and sunglasses - turned around to face him. She was pointing a knife- _an entire footlong knife_ \- at his face, which immediately broke out in sweat.

They couldn't hear what she said, but Jake could feel himself cowering. Tank top guy turned around with wide eyes, and basically fled into the crowd.  
The woman tucked the knife back into her jeans. That, along with the axe she had strapped to her side - made it clear that she was not a girl to be messed with.

"She looks like the image you would find if you looked up 'badass' on google," Jake breathed. His expression was a mixture of horror and awe. 

So was Amy's. "Yeah," _Her_ expression was a mix of wonder and excitement. "She looks like-" she broke off, and squinted at the woman. "Wait. She looks like - Rosa?!" 

"Who?"

Amy grabbed Jake's hand and pulled him to the bar. "Rosa? Rosa Diaz? It's me, Amy Santiago!" 

'Rosa' didn't even look up from where she was...sharpening a blade? Jake gulped.

"I don't know a Rosa," she said. Her voice held a hint of 'speak to me again and you'll die'-ness. 

"Oh, you haven't changed at all!" Amy exclaimed in delight. "We grew up in the same town and went to ballet together." She informed Jake, who raised an eyebrow. 

"Ballet?" 

"Yeah! We were both kicked out though. Rosa for punching someone- that girl totally deserved it though- and me for -" she stopped. 

"For?" Jake prompted.

"Yeah, for?" Rosa spoke too, now conveniently interested. 

"For dancing so bad that the teacher said I upset the aura of the place." Amy mumbled. 

Rosa let out a bark of laughter and took off her sunglasses. "Loser," she stated. 

Amy narrowed her eyes at her. "So you remember?" 

"No." 

Jake, who seemed to be lost in thought, suddenly blurted, "Hey, your name seems kinda familiar! Have you-" 

Rosa turned her scary eyes in his direction. "Nope." 

"Oh, okay," Jake giggled nervously. 

"Can we get two beers?" Amy asked. Rather bravely, Jake thought. "And anything to eat, if you have it?" 

Rosa slid over a bowl of gross looking bar peanuts. Amy began to say, "Urgh, not-" but Jake had already popped a handful into his mouth. She shot him a disgusted look. "So, Rosa. I thought you were in Med school? Or was it business school? I don't-" 

Rosa whirled and pointed the knife at Amy's throat. "Have you been stalking me?" She demanded. Next to them, Jake sputtered and gasped. The sudden movement had made him choke on a peanut. They ignored him.

"No!" Amy gasped, her eyes as wide as bowls. "I just heard from someone - it doesn't matter! Don't answer! Let's talk about something else. How long have you worked here?" 

"If I give you alcohol will you stop talking to me?" Rosa grumbled. 

Amy nodded enthusiastically. "Yes!" 

She placed eight dusty beer bottles in front of them. "Do not talk to me. Do not let anyone else come here." 

An hour in, and they'd almost worked their way through the beer.  
Jake and Amy were giggling like two idiots.

"I'm sure she's hiding more weapons in her hair," Amy whispered to Jake conspiratorially. Except her whispers were loud as heck. 

"I bet she can crack the countertop with her bare hands," Jake responded, and this sent them into fits of laughter.

Rosa rolled her eyes. At least they were better than the fuckers who tried to hit on her. She looked at her watch. 10 PM. It was time to leave. She put on her sunglasses and zipped up her jacket. "Move. I'm leaving," she told them, and vaulted over the bar. 

"What? Why!" Amy pouted. 

"That was the deal. I work for six hours, I get the thing I wanted."

"And that is?" 

Rosa -there was no other word for it- _snarled_. "I've already told you too much." She turned around, but Jake gasped. 

"Wait! I think I remember you- do you know a Gina?" 

"I've never known anyone, ever." 

Amy banged her bottle down on the countertop. "Aww c'mon Rosa, we're dying anyway! What are we going to do with that information anyway?!"

"Then why do you need to know it? Morons." She growled. 

They both gave her identical pouts.

"Oh my God, you're annoying idiots. _Fine_. I did- _do_ know Gina." Jake beamed, clearly proud of himself. Rosa turned to Amy. "And we did go to ballet together, it sucked. And I slept with your brother once. Okay. Bye." 

Amy choked on her drink. "Which brother? Rosa!!! Which brother?" Turning to Jake, she added morosely, "I have seven."

"SEVEN!? Wait, you've told me this before. Maybe you can ask them about this when you meet them?" 

Amy brightened considerably at this. "Oh yeah! And it's great blackmail fodder, too. See, if I'd gone with them to Hawaii before, I would never have got this information! Everything happens for a reason!" She looked pretty pleased with herself. _Beer goggles._

Sober jake would have probably not agreed, but drunk Jake was wont to be pretty agreeable with the world. "Why _didn't_ you go with them? To Hawaii?"

It wasn't the first time he'd asked, but it was the first time he recieved an answer, rather than a frown and a brush-off.

She closed her eyes briefly, and began to speak. "I just get so sick of them! I mean, I love them, but sometimes it's just too much, you know? There's my parents, who I love, but they're uptight as _hell_. My mom's always nitpicking at all my decisions, and my dad still treats me like a ten year old child! And then, my brother, David. The _angel_ of the family! He can do nothing wrong, and he always tries to compete with me and one-up me. _Aaaaaaallways_! We had a fight this Thanksgiving. David was talking about how he was a sergeant already, and obviously that lead to all of them taunting me for dropping out of the Police Academy, no matter how many times I've asked them to not, 'cause it always makes me feel like shit." She took a large swig before continuing. "I moved out of New York because it _sucked_ to go out and see a NYPD car and be reminded of my failure all the time, and they _teased_ me for-" She made clumsy air quotes, "- running away. I love them, _I do_ , and I miss them like crazy, right now, but I just don't think I can spend an extended period of time with them. Also I'd be like the only single one there, which a whole 'nother story. David's got a girlfriend, Laura. She's an entrepreneur. He won't stop bragging about her. But, I do miss them! Especially Ben and Felix and Joey and Mama and Dad and Tony and my nephews and my nieces-" 

She was interrupted from her drunken spiel (which Jake was really sinking into) by a group of partygoers who suddenly stepped into their personal spaces. The smell of weed assaulted their nostrils. 

Jake tried to lean away, but a woman in a metallic dress deposited herself over his lap.

"I think they would do!" She slurred to her friends, clearly oblivious to a uncomfortable Jake trying to push her off. 

Another girl, in an animal print crop top, slung her arms around Amy. "Yeah, they are just our type! Oh, girl, your hair is _so shiny_..." She giggled, running her fingers through Amy's silky tresses, then leaning down to take a big, huge whiff. Amy jerked away.

"Urgh, c'mon! Did they say yes?" Two similarily dressed men had joined their group, while Jake and Amy tried to fight the girls off, and were surveying the scene with an air of nonchalance. Jake had finally succeeded in getting the girl off his lap, so she was now leaning on the counter. 

"I dunno, did they?" Metallic girl said, looking into Jake's eyes. 

Jake threw a stricken glance at Amy, who was still trying to protect her hair, before confronting Metallic girl. "Say yes t-to what?!"

"Will you join us?" She pointed to another part of the bar, and Jake and Amy turned in their seats to see a corner booth filled with more people, sitting in a circle. The smoke in the air, and the dim lighting made it hard to see, so they couldn't make out what that group was doing. 

"Wait, what are you playing?" Amy asked, extremely confused. 

"It's not a game, silly!" Animal-print girl said, twirling a strand of Amy's hair between her fingers. 

"Oooh, good idea, we can make it a game, though!" The guy with the cowboy hat exclaimed. "Last one to come, wins!" 

"What? Come where?" Jake asked, bewildered. 

Animal print girl laughed, squeaky and high pitched, before she leaned down to whisper into Jake's ear. "Anywhere you like, baby, I'm on the pill."


	10. CRESCENDO

_2 minutes later_

They burst out into the open, laughing so hard that they had to clutch each other to keep balance. 

"It was an orgy! It was an orgy in the booth!" Amy choked out, gasping for air.

"A booth orgy!" Jake parroted, holding his sides as he cracked up. Amy snorted and nearly fell over laughing, which set them off again. 

Their giggles petered off after a while, and left the duo breathless and red faced, glee written on their faces, still holding on to each other. So close. _Touching._

Jake turned to look at Amy the same time she turned to look at him, and they stood there, just staring at each other...

...the thing was, no one had looked at him like that, in a while. Like he was worth paying a hundred percent attention to, like he had something that made him _special_. True, he hadn't met anyone like Amy in a while, who could engage his mind and capture his thoughts in the way she did, without any regard for whatever else was going on in his head. She washed away all the stuff inside his brain and took it's place - never had he had such a one track mind. 

He swallowed, and she was looking at him with stars in her eyes, and he was leaning down and she was coming closer - 

Their first kiss was awkward and messy but Amy grinned shyly and pressed her lips against his, again, and then her hands were on his neck and his hand were around her waist and obviously, he'd been kissed before, but not like that, never like that. 

They broke apart after a long while, but stayed close enough for their noses to touch, until Jake couldn't handle the tension any longer and he leaned in again. This time, their tongues met and Jake couldn't stop the moan that left his mouth when Amy scratched his neck.

They separated, out of breath and panting. "Maybe - maybe we should take a break from driving for a while." Amy said breathily, her arms still around his neck. 

Jake faux-frowned at her. "I mean, I've been the one who's driving, so- oh wait. You mean-" He fumbled as she raised her eyebrows and waited for him to catch up. "Oh-"

She removed her arms quite suddenly, and hugged herself. "I mean, I wasn't- it's okay, forget about -" 

"No!" Jake exclaimed, immediately missing the weight of her body leaning over his. "No- I mean, let's not forget. Let's remember. I mean-" 

She shut him up with a kiss - _thank God_ \- and she found that it was the only effective way of shutting him up.

Turned out Jacob Peralta turned into a nervous rambler when the world's most beautiful girl was on top of him. 

It had been a tiring day- walking for miles, burying a body, meeting several weird strangers and one weird friend, the exertion of car sex, combined with the ever-present stress of the world ending - so it was no surprise when they drifted off, holding each other. 

They were woken up from their blissful slumber only in a couple of hours, by the sound of fireworks.

They woke up, dazed and disoriented, blinking the sleep from their eyes before they realised where they were. That 'where' being each other's arms. 

Amy pushed off of him and he scrambled to sit up, brushing his hair out of his eyes. 

"Looks like they've brought the party outside!" Amy said, in a falsely bright voice.

"Yeah, ha ha-" 

"I-um-"

"So-"

"Sh-should we just leave?" 

They didn't exchange another work till they were back on the open road. Amy was staring out of the window with great concentration, as if the darkness outside was hiding life secrets and if she looked hard enough, she could find them.

Jake scoured his brain for things to say, anything to break this awful silence, when Amy cleared her throat. 

"Hey, Jake- we're cool, right?"

"Yeah, yeah! So cool! Cool cool cool."

"I mean, we don't have to let things get awkward, it was- it was just end of the world, life-affirming sex, right?" 

It stung a little bit, to hear last night be described as 'just' but Jake supposed it wasn't wrong. _Where was any of this going to lead anyway?_

"Yeah- of course." He looked at her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah - I just - I mean, technically, this is like the first one night stand I've ever had, so- " 

Jake looked at her. "Oh-" 

"I guess Constantine was supposed to be one, but eh. We know how _that_ went."

_There she was with her rambling._ She added in a smaller voice, "I'd rather you be my first _anything_ rather than him, though." She shot him a smile, small but sincere, which he couldn't but help return. 

"Well, in that case, I'm glad you'll be my last." 

Amy guffawed. "Last?"

"Well, yeah. Considering the world ending, and all-" 

"That's not what the people at the booth were thinkin' -"

They chuckled, remmebering the the crazy-ass events of previous night. 

Amy took a deep breath. "Well, what about Jenny?"

Jake frowned. "What about her?"

"I mean, she's your first love and all, isn't she? Won't you-" She made a weird hand gesture. 

Jake felt a blush rise in his cheeks and thanked the darkness outside for hiding it from Amy. "What- oh, come on. It's not like I'm immediately going to jump into bed with her or anything- at least, I don't think..." 

Amy turned so her entire body faced him. Her fingers danced along the seatbelts. _A few hours ago, they'd been dancing across his naked torso_. He shook his head to chase _those_ thoughts away. Amy eyed him carefully. "What's her story, anyway?" 

Jake sighed, and bit his lip.

"She's the one that got away, I guess. We were, ummm, a couple, in 8th grade, but at my Bar Mitzvah she told me that she liked Eddie Fung, and that she was dumping me. I was _heartbroken._ And since then, she's _never_ been single. Not through high school, not through college. And then she got married immediately after college. She wrote to me a month after getting divorced, which is probably the longest she's been single since like, sixth grade." 

"That's a long time to be hung up over a middle school relationship, Jake." 

"Yeah, but the pain of being Funged! It's like, one minute we were making plans of grinding, the next minute she's slow dancing with Eddie Fung! I can _never_ forget that. I just feel that if he ever saw _me_ getting together with _Jenny_ , I could die in peace." 

Amy laughed. "It seems like you've got more negative feelings for Eddie than positive feelings about Jenny-" 

Jake jerked, suddenly, his gaze fixed on the rearview mirror. "Oh, crap!" 

Amy strained her neck trying to look backwards. "What? What is it?" 

They'd been so engrossed in the story that Jake hadn't noticed they were doing 90 in a 60 - and now they were being pulled over. The cop car chose that exact moment to turn its siren on. 

"Oh, no oh no oh no!" Amy moaned, in tune with the sirens.

"It'll be fine, Ames, calm down-" 

"But we don't have any ID, or money, or anything!" She said, frantically patting her pockets.  
"What if - oh crap, what's this?" She pulled out a bag of what was _very clearly_ weed from her jacket pocket. "What in the _fucking world_ \- oh God, the orgy girl from yesterday must have slipped it in when she was slobbering all over my hair!" 

"Hide it! Put it under your seat! Sit on it!" Jake hissed. Yeah, he was a cop, but c'mon, bigger problems? 

The cop, a middle-aged, blonde man with a beer belly, lethargically asked for their licences and registration, which they obviously didn't have. 

This is how they found themselves, in the wee hours of the morning, sitting in the holding cell of a dingy little police station.  
Jake's 'but I'm a cop!' card turned out to be pretty useless when Amy had basically surrendered the bag of weed at the policeman's feet. 

"I'm sorry I messed up," she whispered to him, looking miserable. 

"Hey, it's cool. I'm sure he'll let us go, soon." Jake replied, in what he was hoping was a soothing voice. Truth be told, he wasn't sure what was going to happen. 

"What if he doesn't ! What if we die here, in this cell?? I just wanted to talk to my parents one last time," she added miserably, foot tap-tap-tapping against the linoleum. 

"We'll get out, Amy. What are they going to do to us anyway, it's not like we're going to find a judge or get a court date." 

"But the world is ending! There are no more rules anymore! They can do whatever they want!" She burst out. She seemed in the verge of tears. "I thought I could handle it. I thought I could handle the end of the world alone, and I was like, okay, everyone's dying, so who cares? But the truth is, I absolutely _hate_ things that I can't control, and I _cannot_ handle this - I'm freaking out! We're all going to _die_ and this is the end of our lives and I have _nothing_ to show for it! No achievements, no medals, no commendations, no husband and kids- "

Jake, who's eyes had been widening with every word, decided it was time to intervene. "Listen. _I_ only had a wife because I said yes to the first person who was nice to me. Rushing into a relationship just for the sake of it isn't worth it. You may not have had a husband and kids but that doesn't reduce the value of your life! Amy, look, all this? Medals, Awards? It doesn't mean anything when you're dying. It may matter when you are alive, but that's not going to be true for much longer, is it? All that matters now, is that you have eighteen days and what you'll do with them. And you're going to Hawaii. And you're meeting your family. So that's what you should concentrate on, okay? You can't change the past, but you have a tiny future that you _do_ kinda have control over." 

Amy rubbed her eyes. "Thanks, Jake. I needed that. Can- can you distract me? Tell me a story." She scooted closer to him and put her head on his shoulder.

Jake took one of her hands in his. He was readying for another cool cop story when she stopped him. "Tell me about your family." 

Jake wasn't surprised, but he wasn't pleased either. Talking about his family was _not_ one of his favorite things, but he supposed he could indulge Amy, this once. 

"Errrm. Okay. Whatever. My parents had me when they were pretty young. Dad left when I was seven, he was a cheating scumbag. Mom raised me alone, and she worked a lot, so I was either alone, most if the time, or with my Nana. When I was eighteen, I moved here for college with my friend Gina, but went back home - New York - after. My mom died-" He gulped like it was painful to say, "-six years ago, and then I moved back here. It sucked pretty bad for a while, but-" He shrugged. "Anyway, I had Gina and Charles and Holt and Terry and of course, Sophia, and I thought it was okay enough." 

Amy was tracing patterns on his thigh, and it was distracting enough that Jake forgot they were locked up in the middle of nowhere. "Was 'okay enough' good enough for you?" She asked in a small voice, without looking up at him.

Jake shrugged. He'd never really thought about it like that before. "I s'pose. I guess I never really knew better. Maybe, if I had..." 

Amy gripped his hand harder. "You know how they say you don't realise how good something is till you lose it, and you don't realise you're missing something till you find it?" 

She had the same starry eyes look on her face, and Jake felt something inside him shift. _A revelation._

"Amy..." He could hear his heart thudding in his chest. 

"Jake..." He _saw_ her mouth form the word rather than hearing it. He swallowed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. 

It was anybody's guess what could have happened in the next five minutes. They could have kissed and thrown all their plans to the wind, and died together. Or instead maybe Jake would have noticed the key kept five feet away from the bars, and Amy would have come up with an escape plan. Maybe the cop could have seen them making out and separted them and they would have died alone in that dusty hellhole. Literally _anything_ could have happened, but this is what the universe chose to throw at them - 

They didn't hear the heavy footsteps approaching them. They didn't hear the jingle of keys on the person's belt as he walked to the holding cell. They didn't hear the sharp intake of breath as he saw them. They did hear, however, when his face broke into a grin as he exclaimed in a jolly voice, " _Amy??_ Amy Santiago?!"

"... _Teddy?_ "


	11. CONVERSATIONS AND REVELATIONS

He was the Commanding Officer of that station it seemed, and also, Amy's ex. 

He looked at her like Christmas had come early. She looked at him like Christmas had been cancelled. 

He let them out, of course, how could _his Amy_ do anything wrong? He seemed less than enthusiastic about letting Jake go, but Amy vouched for him, so Teddy reluctantly obliged.

"Well, thanks for the help, Teddy-" Amy began, but Teddy wasn't done yet. 

"So what about this meteor stuff, yeah?" He leaned across his desk where he was sat at, doing their 'release paperwork.' Jake's 'but no one cares about paperwork anymore' didn't seem to have done the trick. 

Amy crossed her arms and shrugged. "Yeah, haha, we're all dying, and-" 

Teddy leaned back in his chair, a smirk crossing his face. "No. _All_ of us aren't. _I_ am not. And if I have any say in it, Amy, _you_ aren't, either." He gave her a look that said _are you proud of me for saving your life?_

Amy screwed up her face in confusion. "What does that mean?!"

"When you broke up with me, you told me I was too boring -" Jake could barely hide the laugh that escaped him when he heard that.  
"-so I decided to spice up my life! I joined a group called _The Adventurers' Guild_. Anyway, we knew that the earth would be in grave danger one day, whether by aliens or the government or by God and natural calamity, so we _created_ a bunker. A hideout that'll protect us! There's an entry from this police station as well. We have everything- food, long distance radio, condoms, pregnancy tests -" 

Jake was trying really hard to stifle his laughter, and Amy was throwing him dirty looks. Teddy looked oblivious to their silent conversation, but then Amy straightened up at his words. "Wait. Radio?"

"Yeah, our communication system is state of the art, FBI level-"

She was already halfway out of her chair when she asked, "Can I use it?"

It took an hour, but the call to Hawaii went through. And in an hour, Amy was talking to her family. 

Jake hung back, knowing she wanted this time for herself. Unfortunately, this meant keeping an eye on Teddy, so he didn't go disturb Amy. 

"So...where's our truck?" Jake asked, eyeing Teddy critically, who kept looking in Amy's direction.

He turned his attention back to Jake, unwillingly. "It's in the impound lot. If you want it back, it usually takes three or four days, but given the-"

"What?" Jake cried. "Three or four days?!"

Teddy shrugged. "Usually. And now, I think, maybe nine to ten days? Or maybe more than that...yeah, you are not getting it back."

Jake scowled at him, but Teddy didn't seem to notice. His mind was clearly elsewhere.

"So...how long do you know Amy?" Teddy demanded.

Jake rolled his eyes. "We've been friends for a while now." He replied. Annoying Teddy was not in his plan, because he _did_ want their truck back, but considering Teddy wasn't likely to fulfill his wishes, Jake thought he might as well relieve some of his frustration, at Teddy's expense. 

And annoyed he was. "Oh? I never heard of you, so-"

"I heard of you, though." Jake fibbed. "I guess you weren't together long enough for her to introduce us-"

It _was_ fun to see Teddy sputtering. "Six months! We were together for six months! We had a joint library card!!"

Jake almost cracked up at that, but instead he forced himself to he nonchalant. "Amy's had joint library cards with a lot of people. Hard to keep track."

Teddy looked pretty devastated, and Jake didn't want to be physically thrown out of the 'bunker', so he decided to play nice for a while. At least until Amy finished her call. 

He gave the room they were in a once-over. It was small, kind of like an entryway to the actual bunker, which was behind a pair of large metal doors. "So...you're a survivalist?"

Teddy raised his eyebrows, evidently under the impression that Jake was impressed by what he saw. "I'm _smart_. This place is totally immune to _all kinds_ of-"

Yeah, Jake wasn't going to be able to play nice for much longer. "Can it keep out a _meteor_? Because that's like, going to really blow the earth up. They're saying the earth might _split_. The entire _planet_ is gonna be _blown up_."

Teddy hummed peacefully. "This bunker won't. We are _completely_ protected."

Jake snorted. "Wow, man. _Great_ confidence." 

Teddy didn't seem to pick up on the sarcasm. "Yeah. I'm going to get through this! l And then, when the dust settles, and the _stupid_ people are wiped out, we will rise and repopulate the earth. Create a tribe of the smartest humans on the planet. Survival of the fittest, baby!"

"You mean on the pieces of earth right? 'Cause that meteor is big and fast- "

"Whatever you say, man. You can leave, and die. But I'm going to ask Amy to stay back."

Jake nearly jerked out of the chair he was sitting on. "What? Why?! You think she'll stay? _Here_?"

Teddy smiled, almost _shyly_. "Of course! Why would _anyone_ say no to a chance to _survive_? And with Amy here, I can repopulate the earth. With her genes, and my genes, we shall create a master race -"

"Okay, STOP." Jake said because he _really_ didn't want to think about Amy and Teddy's genes combining. Teddy shrugged, and went back to his daydreaming. 

Jake decided that silence was a better option, and so he fidgeted with his dead phone till Amy was done. 

Amy came back, cheeks flushed, eyes bright. "I talked to them." She smiled at Jake. It was a little happy, a little sad. He tried to give her a reassuring smile. 

Unfortunately, Teddy was simpering at her as well. "Amy, that's great news! Did you tell them about our survival plan?"

"Umm, no?" She looked away from Jake to throw Teddy a perturbed glance.

Jake looked between them once and resolved to get Amy out of there before Teddy trapped the both of them in the bunker. "Ames, the truck's been impounded, and Teddy here, says we can't get it back."

"The impound lot is not under my control, sorry." He didn't seem very sorry. 

Amy's face fell. "Oh no! But we really-"

Teddy placed an reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Amy, I have a much better plan-" 

Suddenly, Amy gasped. "Hey! What about all those funny little hybrid cars you have back there? Can we borrow one of them?"

Teddy's face contorted. "They're for-" 

"Yeah, yeah, the survivors, I know, but c'mon, you have like eight or nine back there, surely you can lend us one? Please?" She gave him a doe-eyed look. Jake knew that if it was _him_ she had been asking for cars from, he would have given her all of them, and then some. 

Teddy pouted. "But, Amy, I thought you were staying here-"

Amy stiffened. "I- the plane-" 

Teddy gave her a funny look. "Amy, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but the last plane left four days ago-" 

"Yeah, no, look, this is different-"

"But-"

"Teddy! I don't know about that plane, but I promised Jake I'd help him get somewhere. You wouldn't make me break my promise, would you?"

"No! I would never-" 

"Good! Can we please, please, borrow one of your cars, then?"

Jake could see the beginnings of a frown on Teddy's face, but suddenly he brightened like he'd just thought of something. "Oh- and then when you're done helping him, you can bring the car back!" 

Amy tried to smile at him, but it came out more like a grimace. "...so where do you keep the car keys?"

They took the car keys and basically fled. Luckily for Jake, the car was an automatic, so Amy was driving.

"He _really_ thinks you'll be back." Jake stated, looking into the rearview, where Teddy was still waving goodbye. He'd talked Amy's ear off about their post-meteor plans and had continued yapping right until Amy had stepped on the gas.

"He also thought talking about, brewing and drinking pilsners 24x7 was a good idea, but that didn't work out very well for him, so-"

Jake let out a shout of laughter. " _Where_ do you find these losers, Ames?!" 

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I don't know, sometimes at weddings, sometimes at work, sometime they're my neighbours who never pick up their mail-"

"Ha ha, very funny."

Amy let out a huge breath, like she hadn't realised she'd been holding it. "It felt nice," she said. "To talk to them again."

Jake didn't need to ask, to know that she was talking about her family. 

He patted her on the arm. A pretty dumb move, he immediately thought, but Amy didn't seem to mind. She shot him a grateful smile. 

"So...you're not a cop, as your brothers keep reminding you, but _what_ do you do?" Jake couldn't believe he didn't even know what she did for a living. To be fair, they had been a bit busy, what with all the nutty people and wacky situations they kept running into. 

Amy chuckled. "Who are you, my mom?" He rolled his eyes at her. "Nothing that my parents would be proud of, really. A bit of this, a bit of that? I could never decide, y'know? It was my plan to be a cop, and I never had a plan B ready. I guess I always held out hope there was still a chance I could be a cop." She stopped as she checked their speed. ("Don't want to be pulled over again." "God, no.") She adjusted the mirror before continuing. "I studied Art History at NYU, but New York is where all the museums are, so that degree didn't help much in Springfield." They both laughed at that. "I work- worked- at the library. I did a minor in library sciences, so that was my first choice. Well, second choice. I also tutored middle schoolers, Math and English. On the weekends, I worked at an art gallery downtown, there's not much work there, really. But it's fun! Oh, and I did taxes for a few people. At the start, I only did it to supplement my income, so I could afford a car, but I stuck with it, later. Mrs. Jameson needed the help, and I needed the money." 

"...Whoa." Jake was staring at her, wide-eyed and slightly, intimidated? He shook his head. "That's quite a few jobs."

Amy grinned. "Yeah, I like to keep busy."

"I liked to lay on my couch and watch movies and drink beer." Jake said. 

Amy laughed. "Hey, I liked lazing around too! Whenever I got the time-"

"The _very fact_ that you just called it 'lazing around'-" He stopped abruptly, having thought of something. "Hey, that art gallery you worked at- was it owned by Genevieve?" 

Amy gave him a surprised look. "Yeah! Do you know her?" 

"Yeah! You know, her partner, Charles-"

"Urgh. Him. I know his _hoof stew_ too well-"

Jake laughed. "He worked with me! At the station!"

"Wait - he's a cop?"

"Mm-hmm."

Amy looked amazed. "Wow, I always thought he'd be a...I dunno, a food-related-somebody. Especially since he asked me to invest in a food truck, once!"

Jake snorted. "Oh, yeah, that thing was set on fire!"

"What?!" Amy cried in horror. "No wonder he didn't bring it up again!" 

Jake looked at her. "It's so funny- when did you start working there?" 

"When I first came to Springfield - I was...twenty four, I think? Four-ish years ago. The art gallery was actually my first job, but the pay was-" She made a fart noise with her mouth. 

Jake was deep in thought, his mind clearly elsewhere. "It's crazy...Charles kept telling me, that there was this girl he thought would be perfect for me, Genevieve's new employee...I wonder-"

Amys cheeks reddened, her eyes widened. "Oh-" she said quietly. "Yeah, I remember, he kept prying, both him and Gen. They are so kind, but so weird!" 

"He kept trying to set up a date, but I always said no- " Jake was mumbling more to himself than to Amy, at this point.

Amy wasn't looking at him. "Yeah? Why not?"

He looked down at his shoes. "My mom had just died, well, maybe not _just_ , but I was still not over that. Also, I remember, I was in _pretty_ terrible debt the first time I moved there. And it took me a while to settle in at my job, I did _not_ get along with my captain. Basically, I just wasn't in a really good place..." He looked up at her to find her looking at him. "But...if I had said yes-" 

Amy cut him off before he could continue. "It wouldn't have mattered."

Jake bit his lip. "What do you mean?"

"I just feel that...even if two people are perfect for each other, it's not going to work out, if one of them isn't in the right headspace to be in a relationship. And - just for example - if one person were in mourning, and the other person, say, was new to town, with no friends, and recovering from a struggle with anxiety that caused her to drop out of the New York Police Academy, it wouldn't have been the right time for them to jump into dating, because they both would have been hurting, and confused, and scared. And they could have ruined what could have been perfect."

"So you're saying-" 

"I'm saying there's a time and place for everything, and that time was not for me -or you!- to get into something serious. I learned that the hard way. I was angry at my family, and I broke off ties with all my friends. I needed to...settle down first, and not to sound cringey, but I needed to _love_ myself first, before I could... love someone else." 

Jake exhaled, heavily. "I get what you mean." His voice seemed on the verge of cracking. He rubbed his face. "I think I learned that the hard way, too." He thought of Sophia. He thought of their failed relationship. He thought of how he ignored the fact that they rarely could talk about work without getting into fights, and how they chose to just forgo work talk after that. It led to Jake not being able to share any of his problems with Sophia. It led to a _lot_ of pent up stress. It was probably what led to Sophia having an affair with her boss. He wished he could go back in time, halt the trainwreck that was going to happen. Protect his past self. 

"Jake..." Amy said. "Like you said, it's in the past now. Don't worry about it. Just...take a deep breath. Relax. Think about what's gonna happen next. We don't have a lot of time...but we have stuff to do. We have places to be. And that's still better than rotting away alone, in an empty house, right?" 

She handed him a bag. "CDs from Lohank's truck. That officer confiscated it, but I got him to give it back in exchange for the weed."

"Noice." Jake said. His voice was empty of his usual cheeriness. 

"Say what you will about the man, he had a bangin' taste in music." Amy threw him a smile. 

"Hell yeah!" Jake smiled. "Dolly Parton? Wow." 

They were silent for a long while after that, letting Dolly do the talkin'.


	12. HOMECOMING, APPARENTLY

Before he knew it, the streets started becoming familiar. As Brooklyn came into view, Jake could feel a lump of nostalgia forming in his stomach. 

"I lived in Brooklyn for a while," Amy said. "Not long, just a year after college, before I got into the Academy. It's a pretty great place to live."

Jake looked at her in surprise. "It is...I thought I'd find a way back y'know? When I was less mad and sad."

Amy chuckled. "Yeah, me too. I thought I'd planned everything. I've been planning my entire life since I was six. Six! My abuela used to laugh at me. She used to say, 'The future is not in your control', and I used to say 'but I don't like that!' and she used to say, 'as long as we have the right people with us we can handle anything.'" She sighed, briefly closing her eyes. "I wish instead of searching for control, I'd searched for the right people."

He nodded at her, unable to come up with something to console her. Their entire journey had been an emotional upheaval for him, and while repressing feelings generally did the trick for him, it seemed that the feelings had now become too much for him to handle. He could sense unrest rising within him. Any more emotions, and he was going to overflow. That, and the aching nostalgia of coming back to his hometown were threatening to push him to the edge.

"Take a left turn here," he told Amy quietly, and Amy put on the turn signal, even though there were approximately zero cars on the road. 

They pulled up in front of a typical apartment building, unassuming and normal. Jake wondered if his live would change, here.

"She lives here, does she?" Amy asked. She was not looking at him.

"It's the address from the letter she sent me...so yeah, I guess."

"Good luck," she wished him quietly, and said she preferred to wait in the car. All the way to the front door, Jake tried his best not to turn to glance back at her, but he gave in, at the last moment. She was leaning back on her seat, rubbing her eyes. Just then, the door snapped open, startling him out of his reverie. "Excuse me," an old woman said tetchily, as she brushed passed him. 

"Good ol" New York. Never change." He muttered under his breath. 

He glanced at the envelope one more time. The thing had been in his jeans pocket since he'd stuffed it there before storming to Amy's, and was looking the worse for wear. _345, Gellding street_. 

Taking a huge breath, he knocked on the door at 345, and waited. Waited for the answer to the biggest question of his life. The solution to his twenty-year trauma. 

There was no answer.  
He knocked again.  
Nothing.  
He waited until it got to uncomfortable to wait, then, sighing, made his way back to the car.

Amy had her head down on the steering. 

"No one's home," he said, rapping on her window. 

She jerked her head up, surprised to see him back so soon. "No one's home?"

Shaking his head, he made his way back to the passenger side.  
"Are you sure you checked properly?" Any asked, looking at him rather suspiciously. 

"Well, duh-"

"It's just, you were barely five minutes-"

"She's not here, alright? Let's leave-"

"Jake!" Amy frowned. "What are you scared of? You asked me to bring you here. You obviously have been itching to talk to her. What's up? I mean, she could be in the bath or something. You should wait for a little while longer."

Jake chuckled humourlessly. "I've been waiting for twenty years."

"So what's ten more minutes?C'mon, I'll wait with you."

"Really?" 

She smiled at him. "Yeah. Make sure you don't run away!"

He shot her an annoyed look, but she continued to smile brightly at him, so he quickly looked to the ground to hide the smile that mirrored hers. 

"- also, I need to pee. Let's go, wimpy boy!"

" _Excuse_ me-" 

She'd already taken off.

"Yeah, maybe she's not home." Amy said, morosely, after they'd been waiting outside 345 for more than half an hour. 

"Told you so-" Jake replied, smugly.

"Dammit, I wanted to pee." She muttered under her breath. She turned to him, looking hopeful. "Hey, Jake. Maybe we can break in and look for an address?"

Jake snorted, and then when he realised she was being serious, gave her an incredulous look. "What? No!"

"C'mon! You need closure, Jake! And I want to use the bathroom-"

"Ames, we passed like 20 McDonald's-"

Amy tsked. "I have a thing okay? I can't pee in public bathrooms!" 

"Oh, is that why you took so long in the bar that day?"

"Yeah! I have to give myself a pep talk first."

"I thought you'd run away."

"What, with the man in the cat costume?" She laughed. "Listen...I can pick the lock-" Amy looked at him sheepishly.

Jake gave her an amused look. "I think the only reason you aren't a cop, is that you're a criminal." 

Amy smiled a bit at that. "My grandparents actually met like this. He was trying to pick a lock at a perp's house and my grandmother- she was the neighbor- loaned him a pin!" 

"Awww. How romantic!" 

"It is, isn't it?" She said. She didn't seem to have noticed his sarcasm. 

"Anyway, I'm a cop, I can pick locks as well." Jake informed her. "One time, I had to get into this members only speakeasy, and there was a password - the hell?"

She'd already opened the door.

She shrugged at him, not bothering to hide the self-satisfied look on her face. "I really need to pee," she said, by way of explanation.

Inside the apartment, most surfaces were lined with a thin sheet of dust, and it smelled musty. "No one's lived here for at least a week." Amy called out, swinging a finger over the wooden dining table. 

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the detective!" Jake whined.

"Be better at it then." Amy muttered, and made a beeline for the bathroom.

Jake slowly walked into the kitchen. On the refrigerator, he saw pictures of Jenny, and a blonde boy that must have been her son, a few pictures of Jenny from her college days, a few with her family. He felt slightly foolish. _Had this all been for nothing?_ God only knows what possessed Jenny to write to him. He walked back into a living room. On the dining table there was a box full of trinkets, and he picked up a cop car figurine, probably her son's. It looked liked the one on his desk, and he was hit with a pang of longing. He dug around a bit more, and found an old album, titled 1989-90. 

He opened it, the first thing he saw was a picture of a children's birthday party. He immediately noticed a tween Gina. She looked unimpressed. The sight made him laugh. _God, he missed her._

He turned the pages, slowly. Here and there, he caught sight of his old classmates, people he played with and learnt with and ate lunch with and later lost touch with.

\- then he saw it. A picture of Jenny and him, from his bar mitzvah. She was in the frilly blue frock with a giant bow tie over the butt. A newly teenage Jake, in his messy haired glory, was holding her hand as they beamed into the camera. _Before Fung ruined it all._

He took it out of the plastic cover and pocketed it. The photo gave him a renewed sense of hope. He rummaged through the box for a while, hoping to find any more memories, when he suddenly realised Amy was missing. 

"Amy?" He called out. No reply. Growing increasingly concerned, he made his way through the small apartment. _What if she ran away; what if she was kidnapped?_

In the bedroom, he found her passed out over the bedspread, mouth slightly open. 

He snorted, but it was more in relief than anything. _God, she must have been so exhausted._ She didn't talk about it, but the call from her family had...changed her somehow. It gave her a huge burst of happy energy which lasted for a short while but drained away quickly, leaving her strangely placid and glum. He wondered what they'd said to her.

He took her shoes off, and pulled a blanket over her. Her sleeping face, so calm and still, made him smile, and he stared at her for a while, before starting to feel drowsy himself. He hesitated, but only for a second, before getting into the bed on the other side. He fell asleep in minutes.

Jake woke up with a start. He checked the bedside clock. He'd snoozed for three hours! 

Amy was still asleep, but she was spooning him, from behind. Blushing at the realization, he extricated himself from the admittedly very comfortable position. His stomach rumbled, reminding him they'd eaten nothing except for the bar peanuts which was more than twelve hours ago. 

Making his way to the kitchen, he opened cupboards, looking for food, finding nothing but instant noodles and old tea bags. 

"Tea and ramen it is," he whispered to himself, rifling though the shelves, looking for utensils. He'd eaten weirder combos.

When the food was ready, he made his way back to the bedroom. He sat down next to Amy, and gently rubbed her arm. "Ames.You hungry?" 

She stirred. "I like it when you call me Ames," she said, sleepily. 

For whatever reason, Jake couldn't stop the smile that split his face in two. His heart did a somersault in his chest. There was just a _way_ about her, that kept pulling him in, kept him on his toes. He wanted to make her happy. He wanted to spend the day arguing with her. He wanted- he didn't know what he wanted, _exactly._ All he knew was that he could stare at her dopey smile for the rest of his days, even if there were more than eighteen of them.

"I've got food," he whispered to her again, and she opened her eyes. They were shining. "Food!" She exclaimed, and _whoops, there's another somersault._

In ten minutes, they were sitting on the counter, eating instant noodles and drinking black tea, which Jake poured down the drain, after the first sip had them both gagging. 

"The things I will miss the most...okay! The fresh smell of new binders. The process of lamination. Oh, buying the perfect pantsuit!"

"Watching Die Hard. Meat supreme pizza. Sour candy. Orange soda. Blue cake"

Amy guffawed. "Aren't any of yours non-food related?!"

He shrugged. 

The conversation, as they slurped down their noodles, was the weirdest foods they'd eaten. From there, they'd graduated to listing the things they would most miss, when they were dead.

"- why aren't any of yours food related?" 

Amy frowned, like Jake had pointed out a character flaw. "I will miss food! My mom's cooking. Polish food. _Hot_ chocolate on a _cold_ night."

"Nice. Watching cartoons on a Sunday morning. Listening to Taylor Swift."

"Watching jeopardy. Doing crosswords."

"Solving cases"

"Filing taxes."

"Watching Die Hard-"

"You already said that one!"

"Amy. Die Hard is the best movie series to grace our planet- I'm obviously going to miss it! In fact, it's what made me want to become a cop." He sighed, staring into the distance. "I never even got to meet Bruce Willis." He looked so sad, and Amy had a sudden urge to track down Mr. Willis for him.

The mood turned sombre after that, so they decided to list the thing they would _not_ miss.

"Messy desks. Messes in general."

"Math."

"Cooking!"

"Wearing ties. Opening mail!" 

She laughed at that, loudly and heartily. "Good one." She looked at him, wistfully. "Damn. Jake...sometimes I wish I had this a year ago. Or two. Whenever I made the, ahem, questionable decision of dating Teddy." 

Jake silently agreed. He reached out for her hand, which she eagerly proffered, and gave it a gentle squeeze before letting go. There was no use in not pretending that they would have possibly made an amazing partnership, once upon a time. But the time for what-ifs had long since passed, and all they had left was 'what now?'

Jake looked down at his hands. If the meteor were to strike them at that very moment, he would die a happy man.


	13. ABOUT TIME

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of inspiration from Boyle-Linetti wedding for this one.

Later, when they were washing the dishes (Amy's idea, _urgh_ ) she asked him tentatively, "So... what now?" 

He didn't look up from the plate he was scrubbing. "I don't know-"

"Didn't you find an address, or a clue, where she could be?" Amy pressed.

Jake pursed his lips to stop the sigh from leaving his mouth. "No, and...look. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be, so it's fine-" And it was. He'd made his peace with it, and being around Amy, with Amy, had _definitely_ helped. She'd led him to Jenny, but she was also the reason he hadn't freaked out and gone crazy over the Jenny thing. Because, for some reason, she demanded his attention and made him want to give it to her. She made him forget about the bad things. 

It was _official_. He liked, _liked_ her. But he knew it was a fruitless endeavor, what with her leaving soon, and them dying not long after. It didn't stop him from being enchanted by her every move, though. It didn't stop him from _hoping._

She flicked him with the towel she was wiping the dishes with. "C'mon, Jake! What happened to _first love_ and all that shizz!"

The photograph in Jake's pocket suddenly seemed heavier.

He remembered holding Jenny's hand, the day before his Bar Mitzvah, showing off his suit, rambling about his plans for the gift money.

("I'm going to be a man tomorrow." He'd whispered proudly.  
"What does that mean?" Jenny asked.  
Adolescent Jake racked his brains. He hadn't prepared for that one. "Umm, it means we can take a step forward in our relationship." "How?"  
"We-we can grind at the dance later."  
"Cool. Whatever.")

Jake felt a smile growing on his face at the memory. _Ignorance is certainly bliss._ Thirteen year old Jake cried in a closet, but maybe Thirty year old Jake could get that slow dance?

He turned to Amy, resolution lacing his tone. "Okay...maybe she's at her parents place? The place she grew up? Her childhood home?"

"Yeah, I got it." Amy raised her eyebrows at the sudden excitement in his voice. "Let's give it a try."

So they went there, to an older part of Brooklyn. The street, made up of pre-war row houses, seemed pretty empty. They parked across the street from #17, where middle school Jake and Jenny would attempt to do homework, but end up eating lollipops on the roof instead. She talked about how she wanted to move to LA to be a movie star just like her cousin, and he talked about tagging along, just to see if he could meet Bruce Willis. They made plans of running into A-listers, of getting into the exclusive-est of clubs, of rubbing shoulders with Hollywood's best and shiniest. At that time, everything seemed so bright, simple and _easy_. All their dreams were a mere driver's licence and minimum wage job away. For those few hours after school for a few spectacular months, Jake could forget that his dad was remarrying, that his mom seemed to start drinking earlier than ever, that his Nana got tired easier and easier. He was _happy._

He just wanted that innocent exhilaration again.

Through the windows of #17, he could see movement. _There were definitely people in there._

Amy looked at him. "You ready to go?" 

Jake fiddled with the seatbelt. "...Not really?"

She looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Jake took a deep breath, and tried to look anywhere but her. Had it been any other point of time, he'd have been skipping and hopping to her front door before the car had even stopped. But now, there was something that was holding him back. Something had changed, and Jake realised he _liked_ that change. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was afraid that flouncing to Jenny's front door would revert this change. 

"Look...when we started out on this...this journey? I had a plan, kinda. I had expectations on how this...reunion...was going to turn out. But...things have changed.

She tsk-ed. " _What_ things?" 

_Oh, that oblivious girl_. "Ames..." He chuckled. _You things_ , he wanted to say, but the words got stuck in his throat. 

Her eyes widened slightly, as if she understood what he was thinking about.

She turned her gaze to the outside. "Be that as it may, we didn't trek all the way here for you to turn away at her front door. You deserve answers, and at the very least, you can tell her she has disgusting taste in tea." Amy nudged him gently with her elbow. "Look, I saw a bodega a few buildings away, and I'm gonna go get some stuff. And you can talk to Jenny. And if the chat goes well, and you need more time...I'll find more bodegas to pilfer." She smiled at him. 

"Okay." He croaked. "How do I look?" 

"You look great." She bit her lip. "Your hair is a bit messy." 

"Oh-" He stretched out his hand to angle the rearview mirror to his face so he could fix his nap hair, but before he could touch it, Amy's hand came out of nowhere and ran through his curls. His eyes closed briefly at the contact. 

"There," she said. Her voice was rougher. 

"Thanks," he choked out. The air between them seemed to have solidified. 

"Welcome," she whispered, without taking her eyes off of him.

Jake swallowed, and gave her a quick nod. She undid her seatbelt and was out in a flash. "Move, you coward!" She called out to him.

Jake took a deep breath, and rubbed his face. _Now or never._

_Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've been waiting for._ He muttered to himself. _Fifteen years_ of pining had led him to this.

Standing at the front door, he swallowed, subconsciously pulling his shirt down and finger combing his hair.

Just looking at the house brought back a ton of memories. But he realised with a pang, no matter how much he clung to the past, these memories had never been enough to make him stay. He'd been waiting for this for so long, but now that he was here, Jake found himself second guessing his entire plan.

What would he say? What would he ask? _Did you love me, Jenny? Do you regret giving up that slow dance? Do you think we'd be living in California by now?_

He stood absolutely still for five minutes, trying to summon up the courage to knock.

_Get a grip, Peralta._ Holding his breath, he rung the doorbell and immediately turned around, not wanting to stare at the dull bronze #17 sign. 

Amy was back, and she was perched on the car hood, eyes trained skyward. She was smoking, Jake noticed with a jolt. He didn't know she smoked. She looked like a natural, and more importantly to Jake, she looked like a _freaking bombshell_. Her dark waves, which she'd washed in the shower at Jenny's old apartment, (It seems so stupid to be in an apartment with a working bath and not use it, Jake! I haven't showered in three days, I feel disgusting!)fluttered around her face. A light breeze blew some strands into her face and she flicked them back with a jerk of her neck in a move that almost made Jake walk back to her.  
Her lips formed a perfect small 'O' as she blew out the smoke, and when she brought that cigarette back to her mouth, Jake was pretty ready to replace it with his own lips. _He hated the smell of smoke but he was willing to learn to love it, for her._

As if she'd sensed his gaze on her, she turned her head to look at him. Their eyes met. She looked surprised, but only for a second. Then she blew him a raspberry. 

He let out a shout of laughter and shook his head. _And he thought he couldn't be attracted to her more._

He was quite rudely brought out of his fantasies by the sound of the door unlatching, and he hurriedly turned. He only glanced back at Amy once, but she'd vanished. 

"Excuse me?"

It was Jenny. It was Jenny Gildenhorn, alright. Same wavy auburn hair, same glittering brown eyes, same confused expression she had on her face when Jake had asked her out during recess and she'd only hesitated for three and a half minutes before saying 'fine'. (He'd just heard from Gina that Ben Pickley had been dumped by her the previous day - and he'd scrambled at finally getting the opportunity to ask her out.) 

He cleared his throat. "Jenny! Hi!"

She hesitated. "Jake Peralta?"

"Yeah! Hello." The words seemed forced, even to him.

She looked only slightly alarmed. "Hi...what- what are you-"

Jake flushed. "I got your letter. Y'know, the one you wrote a couple months ago? Saying you were divorced, and wanted to talk-"

Realization dawned on her face and Jake was too wound up to wonder why it took so long. 

"So-"

She chewed on the inside of her cheek, clearly scavenging for an appropriate reply. "Jake." She said. "Listen. My world had fallen apart, and I'd moved back in with my parents, and while moving I came across old albums, and I wanted to move to Los Angeles -"

And all of a sudden, Jake realised he didn't need to hear it. "Jenny. It's okay."

"What?"

"I- it doesn't matter. I got the letter only a few days ago, and I was on my way to New York anyway, so I thought I'd just say hi."

"I'm actually with someone now-"

He didn't feel disappointment at that. Instead, he felt _relief_. "Yeah, great! Oh, actually, so am I," He lied, glibly. "Her name is Amy." He added unnecessarily.

"Oh. Well." She looked weirded out.

He gave her the photo of them, that he'd taken from her house. "It's not something I'm proud of, but I spent my life stalking you, wondering if I'd ever get a slow dance from you again. Turns out, I was waiting for you, but what I should have been waiting for is the slow dance, really."

"What?" She stared at him blankly.

"I was chasing the person, when instead I should have been looking for the feeling."

"I- I don't-"

Jake supposed he was rambling, and realised it was time to wrap this up. "Nothing!" He smiled. "Nothing. Hey, by the way, do you know what Eddie Fung is up to these days?"

"Eddie who?"

At that, Jake full on cackled. "Wow. The _who Eddie_ part was worth a drive from up from Illinois, I must say! Take care Jenny."

And with that, he turned on his heel, hopped off the porch, and made his way back to the car.

He didn't even _think_ of looking back.

Amy was back inside the car, eating a bag of chips. She seemed pretty engrossed in trying to eat the crumbs at the bottom, and when he rapped on her window, she started, and gave him an annoyed look. 

Chuckling, he made his way to the shotgun side and slid in. 

"Are you done already?" Amy asked. Rather incredulously, he noted.

"Yeah." No explanation needed. "Let's go."

"Go? Jake, didn't you have years of suppressed trauma to resolve?" 

"I did." He turned to look at her. "Got any more snacks?" 

" _Jake_!"

"Fine! Ames, you were right. Fifteen years is a long time to be hung up over someone who wasn't actually even worth it! I always thought she was my 'the one that got away', but right now, I think I understand, she was never meant to stay."

Amy raised her eyebrows. "Wow. That's a lot of growing up you did in five minutes, there."

Jake shrugged. "It was a long time coming. I guess all it took was a deathly meteor, a road trip and a _super_ smart, super nervous, kinda controlling girl with a _crap_ taste in ex-boyfriends for me to _totally_ get it." 

She fished out another bag of chips from under her seat and dropped it on his lap. "Here. Reward for maturing."

"Thanks!" He said, and proceeded to rip open the bag with enough force to spill half its contents on the floor. 

"Jaaaake," Amy groaned. "The minute I said it..."

He sniggered, picking up a couple chips from the floor and shoving them into his mouth. "Please forgive me! I'm reeling from the tremendous amount of closure I recieved. "

"You're really over it?" She asked again. Jake couldn't blame her. He was surprised at how easy it was, too. 

"As much as I'll ever be. I mean, I think I'll always be bitter about the fact that I was dumped on the day of my Bar Mitzvah."

Amy laughed. "So rude of her! She could have at least waited till the day was over."

"I know, right! But at least that shock distracted me from the fact that my dad wasn't there."

Amy looked appalled. "What!? Your dad didn't-"

Jake licked the chip dust off his fingers. "He came, but he left early. With my tap dance instructor, I believe."

She looked aghast. "You took tap dance lessons?"

" _That's_ the part you choose to he shocked about?" He threw her an offended look. 

"Just trying to distract you." She grinned at him. "I'm sorry you had such a sucky Bar Mitzvah." 

"Honestly, it wasn't too bad, all things considered. I got _buttloads_ of money, and my mom took Gina and I out for ice cream and pizza later, and we absolutely gorged. I was sick for two days, and spent them all watching Die Hard."

"Gross." She muttered. But the look in her eyes when gazed at him, suggested that she was thinking the opposite. 

He reached out to take her hand. "Amy, thank you for bringing me here, and not letting me rot in my apartment till I became meteor mush. Really."

She nodded, too overcome by emotion to speak. She covered his hand with hers, and shifted closer to him, only a minuscule amount, but big enough to convey her intentions.

And in typical Jake and Amy fashion, the tender moment was wrecked before it could amount to anything.

The stillness of the street was shattered by what seemed like the sound of a thousand trumpets blowing all at once. 

Jake turned to the back window so fast his neck cricked. Unfortunately, Amy jerked her head at the same time and their foreheads crashed.

"Ow!" "Ouch!" 

They threw each other rueful looks which quickly turned into giggles, and then, still smiling, they turned to take in the sight before them.

It was a _parade_ , essentially. People, loads and loads and _loads_ of people making their way up the street. There was dancing. There was singing. There was shouting and screaming. There were drums, and flutes and tambourines. There were people dancing on the roofs of moving cars. There were people holding up speakers. There were balloons and streamers. There were flashlights and lightsabers.

Jake's eyes widened at the sight. "What..."

"Whoa!" Amy opened her door and got out. 

"Wait- Amy!" She was already outside, so Jake hurried to join her. She watched the progressing party mass with a look of awe mixed with a bit of terror. 

"Where do you think they're going?" She asked him.

Before he could reply, a person with blue hair and a painted face grabbed her hand and twirled her around. She panicked, and caught Jake's hand, so the twirl was awkward and clumsy and embarrassing, but Blue Hair didn't mind. "C'mon! Gala time!" 

Jake pulled Amy back and watched as Blue Hair danced away without skipping a beat.

They looked at each other, half -laughing, half-shocked. 

Looking at her astonished expression, her parted lips, her excited eyes, all Jake knew was that he didn't want to let go of her hand, that was still nestled in his, after she'd grabbed it. So he tugged her forwards.

"Jake?"

"Let's go." He urged her. 

She grinned at him. "Really?"

He responded with an equally big smirk of his own. "Yeah. Let's go celebrate the end of the world."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! First of all, a big THANK YOU to every single one of you who's been reading this! I'm so grateful to all of you, and I truly hope I'm doing this story justice!  
> A special note of appreciation for everyone's whos 'kudosed' and commented. Y'all really make my day!  
> Now- I want to apologize. I know I've said that I wanted to upload this pretty quickly, and until a few days ago I was pretty much on track for that, too. The story is written out already, just needs a few edits here and there.  
> But, a couple weeks ago, I've had to go back into work full time (I work in the medical field) and its been busy as hell, have y'all heard of this tiny thing called corona? (JK its EVERYwhere I KNOW urgh)  
> Anyway, I had no time to work on this fic, and unfortunately this trend is going to continue, so I cannot promise when the rest of the chapters will be up, but here's hoping they're done before June, at the very least!  
> Once again, I'm so thankful to all of you! Take care, stay safe, wear masks, and as Jake said, everyone wash your hands!!!  
> Thank you.  
> \- K.


	14. FOR THE TIME BEING, ALL IS WELL

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title is from 'Good Intentions Paving Company'.

They integrated themselves into the parade easily enough, and were carried forward by the crowd, headed to wherever. At an intersection, the mass stopped moving, and all the speakers blared with the upbeat tunes of _Gasolina_ , so naturally, everyone had to stop walking and start dancing.

Jake found out why Amy had been kicked out of dance class while he tried to stop his toes being steamrolled by her clumsy feet. "Santiago, you suck." He muttered, but without any real bite in his voice. 

"I knoooow!" She moaned. "We should stop, I'm so bad at this."

"We-should-stop-I'm-so-bad-at-this-titleofyoursextape." Jake managed to get it out in a single breath, looking mighty pleased with himself. Sophia used to stop him when she realised he was heading the 'title of your sex tape' way, and hence he'd learnt to say it as fast as he could before she could interrupt. A conditioned reflex.

"What?!" Amy stared at him, part amused and part horrified.

He shook his head, smiling to himself. "It's just...a joke. C'mon, dance!"

Amy rolled her eyes and started to move, only to promptly step on both his feet at once. "Shit! I'm so sorry-"

"Don't think so much." Jake said, looking at her face puckered up in concentration. "Here, just follow my lead." He took her hand in his and grasped it firmly, and placed his other hand on her waist. He led her through a basic box step, and she grinned when she realised she was getting the hang of it. 

"It's not too bad," she murmured, looking at him bashfully.

He spun her around, hoping she'd found her rhythm by then, but her body hadn't graduated to turns and twists yet, so she stumbled and rammed right into his solid chest. "Fuck- sorry! Sorry, Jake!" 

He snickered and hugged her close before letting go. 

The dancers had started moving again, and in a while they found themselves in Prospect park, where the crowd dissipated, as people formed smaller groups, some still moving, some settling down on the grass.

Jake and Amy just stopped for a while, drinking in the sights and sounds and smells. At some point, Amy reached out to grab his hand, and that was the way they stood, in comfortable silence, till Jake finally blurted out what he'd been thinking for a while.

"Ames. The plane?" 

She looked at him, something in her eyes that he couldn't quite read. "Yeah...The plane. But...we can go in a while, right? Let's just...relax here for a bit."

She gestured at the merry scene before them - people had set up barbecues. Kids and adults were running around, chasing each other, laughing, screaming. There was a band playing some song he didn't know and couples dancing to its joyful beats. There were no less than _four_ ice cream trucks, right inside the park.  
There was also a booth, selling 'Tickets to Heaven', which were golden medallions with the words _TICKET_ written on it- _very_ creative. A mother tried to force her pre-teen son to put his madallion on. _"Mom, these are fake!" "That's exactly what people going to hell would say. D'you want to go to hell?" "I'm sure it will be better than having to listen to Uncle Magnus burp and fart all the way through the drive!!" "How DARE you, I'll have to go to heaven and beg Him for forgiveness, y'all will never let me relax, ungrateful children-"_

Amy broke first, and Jake couldn't hold his laughter for much longer after that. They laughed and laughed and laughed. It was cathartic, and Jake couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so untethered, so _liberated_. He slung an arm around her shoulders and she slung an arm around his waist and then, like it was the most natural thing in the world, they leaned towards each other and they kissed. And they kissed and they kissed and they kissed. 

They found a nice spot under a tree, next to a few strangers who were very nice and insisted on sharing their food. They ate hot dogs and fried chicken and tried out every weird flavour of ice cream, just because they could. 

"Bubblegum is just too sweet!" Amy argued. "Purple yam is so much better." 

Jake looked disgusted. It didn't have too much effect though, seeing how his lips were blue from the blue bubblegum ice cream, making him look like an overgrown kid. "If you think vegetables make okay ice cream flavors, you're delusional." 

"Whatever. You've got the tastebuds of a five year old."

"Well, you clearly haven't got _any_ at all, so-" 

They were sitting facing each other but Amy was practically in his lap, which is why it was easy for her to dart forward and plant a kiss on his lips. 

"That's the only way to shut you up," she whispered gleefully, while Jake sputtered and protested, only stopping when she leaned back in, kissing him until her tongue was as blue as his. 

Jake laid down in Amy's lap and she played with his soft curls as they basked in the sun, not speaking, just _being_. 

"It's slightly sad, isn't it, never getting to grow old?" Amy commented quietly, as they watched an elderly couple walk past them, arm in arm.

Jake shrugged. "I was never going to get old anyway. I was going to die in an explosion before I turned forty, while trying to chase after America's most feared serial killer. I would've gotten them, of course. And then I'd have gone back to save the hostages, and sacrificed my life for the safety of the city. My death would cause crime to be abolished." 

Amy snorted and tugged on his curls. "That's quite an elaborate fantasy you have there, buddy. You sure it isn't a movie plot you're borrowing from?"

"It may be a mix of several movie plots," he admiited. "But I meant to say that my death was supposed to be fitting of a superhero. Not 'cause of some stupid _meteor_." 

"Yeah, I'm sure no one expected this. You'd have thought we learned our lesson after what happened to the dinosaurs." 

He chuckled, and pulled on her hair to bring her face down for another languid kiss. 

She broke apart from him with a forlorn expression. "I'm just sad my nephews and nieces won't get to grow up and experience life, y'know? All the kids...they deserved more."

"Everyone deserved better, Amy. Except maybe Teddy. _He_ had it coming."

"Okay...that's true." She giggled. " _How_ do you always manage to make me laugh, Jake?" 

Jake blushed right down to his roots. He wasn't going to tell her how her laugh was his favorite sound in the world and he would do _anything_ to hear it over and over again. Instead, he just flicked her cute button nose, and started talking about his ideal funeral, wherein Charles had decided to commit suicide out of respect. 

They stayed until the sun began to set, and then, gathering the tissues and ice cream wrappers, they made their way back to the car. Jake grabbed her hand, and she complained that it was sticky, but held on just the same. 

"The place isn't too far from here. Maybe half an hour or so." Jake said. He'd offered to drive this time. 

Amy nodded. "How do you know this person, anyway?"

Jake was expecting the question, but that didn't make thinking about the answer any easier. "You'll see. Anyway, that's not important." 

She furrowed her eyebrows, but didn't press it, for which Jake was thankful. Huffing out a sigh, he put the car in drive, and thus began the last leg of their journey. Jake tried not to think too much about the 'last' part.

The drive was silent, their minds and their hearts too full of emotion. There was so much that could be said, but there would never be enough time to say it all, Jake realized. So he focused on the road, and for the first time since he'd heard about it, wondered what his life would be like, if the meteor hadn't disrupted it. 

They parked outside a large farmhouse, located far out from the city. In the time that they'd taken to drive there, the sun had set and the moon was shining above them, casting a silvery glow on everything it touched. When Amy got out of the car, the moonlight glinted off her black hair, making it look shiny and making her eyes sparkle. He offered her his arm, and they walked up to the porch, silently.

Jake let out a huge breath before he knocked on the door. 

Amy looked at him in concern. "Jake? Are you-"

The door swung open, and there stood a man with a shock of white hair and squinty eyes. He looked around suspiciously, until his gaze landed on Jake and his expression changed to one of utter shock. 

" _J-Jakey_? What- what are you-"

"Hullo, dad." Jake said dully. 

Amy gasped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand- the reveal that I'm pretty sure surprised no one.


	15. DIVERGENT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eeeeeeep we're getting close!

His - _Jake's father's_ \- name was Roger Walter Peralta and he had been a commercial airline pilot, before he retired to become a private pilot for a famous actress who believed airplanes were the only mode of travel. She'd died a couple of years ago, leaving him with a too-expensive-to-keep-up penchant for sparkling water and a Cessna that he had no idea what to do with. 

(He mostly used it to have sex in, but nobody needed to know that, obviously except the women he was trying to bed. Apparently a lot of middle aged divorcees had 'sex on a plane' in their bucket list.)

He ushered them into his house, which gave off total bachelor pad vibes, with clothes and beer cans littering every surface. The television was on, and Jake peered at it for a moment before he realised that what was playing, was most probably porn. 

"The TV still working, then?" He said, dryly, and Roger hastened to turn it off. Amy was nervously hiding behind Jake, as though ready to run, at a moment's notice.

"A few channels." Roger muttered, gruffly. "Anyway, Jakey, it's so good to see you. It's been a while-" 

"Stop it." Jake sneered. He hadn't meant to say it so venomously, and he felt rather than saw Amy shift a bit away from him. "Yeah, it's been a while since you _used_ me and then when you got what you wanted, fucked off to whatever corner you'd crawled out of-" 

"J-Jake?" Amy stuttered, anxiously reaching out to rub his arm. He shook her off. He hadn't expected it, but the dad's face had awoken something in him. Years of anger that he'd suppressed, rose to the surface, until he found himself practically spitting at his dad. 

Roger looked thunderstruck for a second, but was quick to gather his wits. He looked at his feet for a second before lifting his head to meet Jake's furious gaze. "I'm sorry." He stammered. "Jake, I'm really sorry, I-" 

Jake snorted. "Don't get your boxers in a twist, dad. I'm just here to remind you that you owe me a favor. Well, you owe me lots of things, but let's stick to the ones where you don't have to pretend to be a father." 

"Jake..." Amy murmured, in what she thought was a soothing voice.

He sighed. For her sake, he had to calm himself down. And now that a bit of his anger was out, he felt strangely lighter. Jake was not the type to hold grudges or go berserk out of anger, so when he looked back and saw Amy's frightened face, his fury as good as evaporated. He had to help her. That was the only important thing. 

"Erm, may I know where the restroom is?" Amy asked Roger politely. 

"Down the hall, under the stairs," he replied, smiling at her. She nodded at him and left the room, but not before turning back to give Jake a look. He understood. _She was giving him a chance to talk it out with his dad._

"Your girlfriend?" Roger asked.

Jake tore his eyes away from the doorway through which Amy had just disappeared.

"I don't know," he replied, trying to ward off further questioning on the topic.

Roger shrugged. "You two look good together." 

Jake rubbed his eyes. "Dad, look, you don't need to make small talk or anything. I just need your help to get Amy back to her family safely." 

"Her family-?"

"They are in Hawaii. Could you do it? Can you fly her there?" He braced himself before he added, "Please?" 

Roger stared at him. Then he nodded, once. "I can do that."

"Thank you," Jake whispered. He'd expected relief to flood himself once he'd heard the confirmation but instead he just felt empty. "I - I appreciate it. She really wanted to go to them." 

"I see." Roger said. "Shouldn't be a problem." A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed before Roger cleared his throat. He was looking at Jake with a strange expression. "Hey- weren't you married, Jake?"

He glanced down at Jake's hands. They were bare. Jake had taken his ring off even before Sophia had left, because he'd shattered his hand a few months ago chasing a perp, and he'd forgotten to put the ring on again after the cast had been taken off. It had only been a month since the bandages had been removed, but it seemed like a _lifetime._

"No," he lied, because he really didn't feel like going into details. 

Roger shrugged. "Oh. Sorry. I thought.... Anyway. We'll leave at dawn." He glanced at the clock, and then turned to Jake with a wary smile. "You still like Mac 'n' Cheese?" 

Roger got started on the Kraft dinner, while Jake got the plates and set the table. The tension in the air had simmered down a bit- Jake had calmed himself down and Roger seemed eager to make amends, so Jake humoured him. He was way past forgiveness, though. 

"I'm sorry for the way things turned out between us, Jake. I was a jerk." Roger said, quietly.

Jake chuckled. "Wow, I can't believe you admitted it." 

Roger shook his head. "I was too selfish to see what I was doing. When you yelled at me before I left, it put things into perspective.   
I'm very, very glad you came here...I didnt want to die without meeting my son once-"

Jake snorted. "If you _did_ get _perspective_ , you could have called me! _You_ could have come met me!"

Roger stopped stirring. "I was scared..."

"How convenient." Jake jeered.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, Jake." Roger reiterated, turning around to face him.

Jake bit back an angry retort and set his jaw before he met Roger's gaze. "Well, you're here now."

A look of poorly concealed relief came over Roger's face. "I am." He nodded vigorously. "I am." 

Amy returned to a _thankfully_ more peaceful, albeit slightly uncomfortable atmosphere. Of course, after knowing what Roger had done to his son, she supposed things weren't ever going to be peachy-keen between them. Jake was being civil and Roger was a gracious host and talks turned to the meteor, and dying.

After dinner, Roger introduced them to his grand collection of booze. They all pounced on it, eager to dispel the awkward atmosphere, in the way only alcohol could help them do.

The alcohol heightened their emotions, made them loose-lipped and ready to overshare. Somehow, the conversation moved to Karen Peralta, and Jake stared down into his drink so they couldn't see the moisture gathering in his eyes. "I miss mom." He said, a wobble in his voice that betrayed his tears.

Roger sighed. "I miss her, too. She was an exquisite lady."

Jake clutched his bottle so hard he was afraid it would shatter beneath his palm. "Yeah? Is that why you cheated on her, and left her alone to raise a child?" 

Roger shook his head sadly. The yellow light made his skin look sallow and sickly, his red eyes and cracked lips adding to the image of being ill that he presented. "I loved her, I truly did."

Jake scowled and rubbed his eyes. Amy, unsure of how to react, downed the rest of her beer in one go, and picked up another bottle. She was not _at all_ keeping track of how much she was drinking, and she'd gulped down too much in too little time, to actually go through her stages. 

"I did!" Roger insisted. "I know, I'm a selfish prick. I've never loved anyone as much as I've loved myself, but Karen came the closest. _Honest_. When she got pregnant, _I_ suggested we get married. And things just went downhill after that! I was surrounded by people who thought cheating and having sex were ultimate proof of coolness. I got carried away. I was a massive dick to everyone I loved, and now I'm dying alone. And I deserve it."

"I didn't abandon a kid or be unfaithful to my wife and I'm still dying alone," Jake rasped out. "What did I do to deserve this? The world just sucks."

"Well, good thing it's ending, eh?" Roger burped.

"Yeah." Jake agreed.

" _Oui._ " Amy giggled. 

When the men glanced at her questioningly, she grinned nervously and took another swig.

The minutes passed. Roger told him about his aunts and uncles who died recently, and also about something called the 'Peralta curse.' Jake was far gone, his thoughts too muddled up in the haze of alcohol and nostalgia to think clearly. He nodded along silently, until he felt a weight drop onto his shoulder.

It was Amy's head. She'd fallen asleep with the bottle still in her hand. Jake stared at her for a while, before she snored loudly, snapping him out of it. 

"Put her in bed." Roger said hoarsely. "We'll leave at first light. Which is not long now, but I might as well take a nap." 

Jake called out her name softly, just to see if she would wake, but only received another snore in response, so he gently (but painstakingly, Terry often called him 'noodle arms') picked her up, bridal style, and followed his dad to the guest room. 

Roger nodded once. "G'night." And then he was gone. 

He didn't think twice before getting in next to Amy on the large, dusty bed, though still being careful to keep a good six inches between them. He thought if he woke up with Amy curled around him again, he might not be able to let her go. 

He laid on his back, staring at the ceiling, trying very hard not to think about the next day. To his right, Amy grunted and mumbled something in her sleep. He turned his head to look at her. Amy was a noisy sleeper, like babies are. He smiled. _I'm never going to get over you._ He mused, to himself. _Ever._

He felt like he'd only just fallen asleep when his father shook him awake, barely an hour later. "It's time." Roger whispered. 

Jake looked around blearily. The first rays of the sun were just making their presence felt, casting a dull golden glow on the grassy area Jake could see from the window. He swallowed, and turned to wake Amy.

She wouldn't wake. 

He prodded, poked, called her name, to no avail. All of a sudden, he remembered what she'd told him the first night they'd slept under one roof. _...but when I drink, I sleep like I'm dead...it's nearly impossible to wake me up..._

He gulped. 

Roger peeked into the room. "Jake, c'mon! You ready? We better leave as soon as we can." 

Jake looked down at Amy. _Oh, Ames. The things I'd do for you._

He decided on just carrying her again. She didn't even flinch, like her brain totally shut down while there was alcohol in her system.

They used a buggy to drive right up to the hangar, Amy's sleeping form sandwiched between Jake and Roger, blissfully unaware of the melancholy emanating from Jake. 

She stirred a bit when Jake tried to rouse her in the buggy, before he deposited her in the plane, but went right back to sleep again.

_Maybe it's better this way._ Jake thought as he carried her to the plane. The dawn breeze blew a few strands of hair into her face, and Jake used his nose to nudge them out of the way. _He was never one for tearful goodbyes._

He buckled her up when she was seated properly. She looked so serene, so calm, so _ethereal_ in sleep. Leaning down on a sudden impulse, he kissed her forehead, causing her to scrunch up her face, and sigh. _Fucking adorable_ , Jake thought, torn between laughing out loud and bursting into tears.

Roger was fiddling with the controls, tongue sticking out in concentration. Jake glanced at him, before he leaned down and whispered into Amy's ear. 

"Ames." He began, gulping. "I _really_ wish something could have happened between us, you know, romantic stylez. _Long term stylez_. And, I know it can't, because the world is ending and we're dying...but I think you should know- you've made me happier than I've been in a long while. So, thanks. I- I love you." 

She squirmed in her seat, and Jake waited with bated breath, but she still didn't wake up. He laced his fingers through hers, squeezing. The meteor was scheduled to strike in a fortnight, but why did it feel like he was dying that very day?

"Bye, dad." Jake trembled, looking into his father's eyes, for what he knew, would be the last time. 

"Take care, Jakey." Roger replied. He smiled at Jake, and despite himself, Jake smiled back. He realised with a jolt that he didn't want to die hating his dad, and he was glad he wouldn't have to.

Everything that happened next seemed to be playing on fast-forward. One second he was squeezing the life out of Amy's hand, the next, he was shutting the door and walking backwards, unwilling to take his eyes off of Amy's slumbering frame. Within the next few seconds, the engines fired up, the noise hurting his ears but also his heart. 

Biting back a sob, he turned and ran towards the buggy, climbed in, and drove back in the direction of the farmhouse. He didn't see the plane taxiing down the runway, he didn't see it tilt as it prepared to take off, he didn't wait to see it disappear in the clouds, taking Amy away from him, forever.

Back at the farmhouse, Jake gathered his things. He put a few packets of chips and bottles of soda in the car for his drive back home. 

He left a note on the counter for his dad. 

_Nice meeting you. I'm going back home. P.S. raided your cupboards_

He was moving slowly, lethargically, as though Amy had taken all his energy with her. She had definitely taken his willpower. He was in half a mind to live his days out in the car, parked somewhere on the side of an highway, but _something_ prompted him to go back home, back to his gloomy apartment in Springfield, something he couldn't fight. 

So he dumped the supplies in Teddy's car, and after determining that the tank was definitely not going to last all the way to Illinois, moved his stuff into Roger's Civic instead, which fortunately, had a full tank.

Taking one last look at the farmhouse, and the sky (just in case the plane decided to circle back or something), Jake put his foot down on the gas, an he was off. Back to Springfield. Back to wonderful, boring, homely, Amy-less Springfield, where nothing but a certain death was waiting for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of nodding going on here, I know


	16. HELLO, MY OLD COUNTRY, HELLO

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooooo: here we are, at the end.  
> First of all, thank you to every one of you, who via kudos and comments, let me know that you are enjoying this story. Y'all rock! 
> 
> Whooooosh, it's been a ride. At least for me! I remember writing the first 10 chapters in quick succession, then having to go back to work and barely getting time to work on the rest!  
> But finally, here it is, the final chapter. And the end of our journey. I'm pretty excited about it, and I hope you are too!  
> (Chapter title from Good Intentions Paving Company by Joanna Newsom.) 
> 
> Here we go.

_While behind us, the road is leaving  
And leaving, and falling back  
Like a rope gone slack_

\- Joanna Newsom, _Good Intentions Paving Company_

*

There _was_ one more thing waiting for him, though. One more person, rather. Outside his apartment - a very worried, very annoyed, _Charles_.

"Where were you!? How could you just leave without telling _me_?!" He stormed.

And on any other occasion, Jake would have been inclined to make fun of him, but the events of the past few days had drilled the importance of goodbyes in him.  
So he gave Charles a sheepish look, muttered a 'sorry', and then began to tell his tale.

*

The ride back had been pretty depressing, to say the least. There was no one to distract him from his thoughts, and more than once, he'd thought about just stopping the car, and giving up.

But then he forced himself to think how disappointed Amy would be in him, so he kept going on. At one point, he found an abandoned gas station, which he raided for candy. A boyhood dream of sorts. It gave him a two minute adrenaline rush, which was quickly replaced by a sinking feeling of loneliness. _It was no fun road-tripping alone._

He'd arrived at his apartment the next morning, and as he made his way up the stairs, all he wanted was a bed to lie and grovel in, and a TV screen to play Die Hard on repeat, until...well, till the end of time. _Not far now._

Instead, he found a short, angry man waiting for him. But if he was being honest, Jake had never been more happy to see his best friend.

*

It felt so _good_ to tell Charles. To get everything off his chest, and he did _not_ hold back. 

"I was falling in love with her, Charles." Jake croaked out, surprised that he had the guts to say it out loud.

Charles looked as surprised as Jake felt, knowing Jake's usual reluctance to talk about what he called _urgh, feelings_ , but Charles's surprise soon morphed into incredulousness and anger.

"How could you let her go, Jake!" He punched Jake on the shoulder.

"OW! What the hell, man?! I wasn't going to stop her from going back to her family!" 

Charles sighed, dissatisfied. "You would have been the greatest love story," he muttered under his breath. Jake found himself silently agreeing. He'd never thought he'd have a love story, let alone _the greatest_ one.

*

Charles came back the next day with more food and movies. Jake made jokes about Charles coddling him, but underneath the jesting, he was grateful as heck for the only friend he hadn't had to say goodbye to. Yet. And Jake made sure Charles knew it, eating the octopus balls he'd made without complaint and indulging him with, what Charles's liked to refer to as, 'Boy Talk'.

They were watching Finding Nemo and fighting over which character their personalities were most like (Charles seemed to think he was like Gill, which, _no_ ) when there was a sharp rap on the door. 

Their heads swiveled to the door, surprise written all over their faces. House calls were a rarity those days. 

"Who-" Jake said, bewildered, both of them pushing themselves off the couch into standing positions. 

There was another knock, louder this time, followed by a more insistent banging.

Jake didn't move. His mind went through all the people it could be. Some he was dying to meet again, others, not so much. His mind immediately leaped to Amy, but he shut that noise down, quick. _What if it was Sophia? Would he ask her about the cheating? He'd fantasized about confronting her, demanding the truth, devising entire arguments in his head. She was a lawyer, he had to be prepared! What if it was Holt? What if it was his father? And of course, of course, _what if it was Amy?__

He tried not to go there. It was too painful to think about.

Realising that Jake was frozen to the spot, Charles hurried to the door and pulled it open, not before throwing a curious look at Jake, as though knew something Jake didn't. 

The person knocking immediately stepped over the threshold, ignored Charles, and fixed an extremely cold glare on Jake.

It _was_ Amy.

* 

"Amy?!" Jake gasped, except it sounded a bit like a strangled ' _argh??!_ ' because though he'd yearned for this moment with all his heart, he'd never allowed himself to hope it could come true.

"Amy!" Charles squealed. "Oh, its Amy! Amy's back!"

Amy didn't even spare Charles a glance as she stormed into Jake's apartment, her eyes red, her hair mussed up untidily. 

"Urm, Charles, can you, ummm, give us a moment, please," Jake called out, only just managing not to choke on his own saliva.

Charles nodded excitedly and exited the apartment, shutting the door behind him.

*

The room around Jake blurred as he looked into the face of Amy Santiago. The angry, furious, _gorgeous_ face of Amy Santiago. 

"Hi-" he said, weakly. He didn't know where he got the courage to do even _that_. Also, apparently, it was the wrong thing to say. 

"You!" She shrieked. Everything about her screamed 'murderous'. Jake could not help but feel slightly turned on. _Probably a bad time to tell Amy about that, though._

She marched right up to him. Without realizing it, he took a step back, which seemed to infuriate Amy even more, because she retaliated by grabbing his shirt collar in both her hands.

He stared down at her hands, not wanting to look into her eyes, which were blazing with the fury of a thousand suns. He was afraid they would burn a hole through his brain. He was also afraid he would do something like make a 'kiss me, I'm desperate' face, and he needed to be, ahem, _cool_.

"How could you?! How could you, Peralta!?" Amy growled at him. 

"Ames- I-" Jake stuttered.

"Shut _up_. SHUT UP." 

Jake forced himself to look her in the eyes, and nearly flinched at the anger and sorrow in her expression. He never wanted to hurt her. _He only ever wanted her to be happy._

So he did a very Jake thing and tried to de-fuse the tension with a very ill-timed quip.  
"I mean, it just seemed like you asked me a question, so-"

Amy just _screeched_ at him, in lieu of an answer, and _yanked_ him towards her by his collar. His arms flew up to balance himself and he had the sudden urge to put them on her waist. He was pretty sure she would not appreciate that, so he awkwardly put them in his pockets instead.

She was shaking. "You can't do that, Jake! You - you cannot tell someone you love them, and then run away! You just can't!"

Jake stared at her, taken aback. "Wait...you heard that? I thought you were fast asleep!" 

She scowled at him menacingly.

"Amy." He placed his hands on her shoulder and gently tried to nudge her backwards before she tore out his collar, and also so he could get a better look at her face. She tightened her grip in response, and so he let up and held her there. "Ames, I - what else was I supposed to do? It was - it was goodbye!! I couldn't let you go without telling you how I felt -"

"When I couldn't even respond? When I was barely conscious to process words? When I couldn't _say_ it back?!" 

Her eyes widened at the implication of what she'd just basically confessed, but she held her ground. Jake, on his part, was spiralling. _DId she mean to say she loved him back?!_

"Ames - " He gasped. "Are you - is that- are you saying- " He closed his eyes briefly, and tried again.

Jake had always had a bad history with confessions of love. The day after he'd confessed his feelings to Jenny, she had ditched him. He'd unfortunately told Ella Stratton he loved her, right after they lost their virginity to each other, and she'd responded by, _"this was a one time thing, Jake."_ His college boyfriend, Jon, had also reacted badly, and their relationship, which had been Jake's best one till then, had fallen apart within weeks, because _"saying 'I love you' puts too much pressure on a relationship, Jake"_. Not to mention, Sophia, who'd also rejected his first admission of love. _"I'm not at that point yet, Jake."_ They hadn't talked to each other for weeks until she'd hesitantly apologised and taken him back, but only after making him promise that he wouldn't spring surprise confessions on her again.

So Jake wasn't expecting an 'I love you' back. He just had bad luck with it. He would get too emotional, it would slip out, and the other person would get all awkward. With Amy too, he kept feeling he'd let himself get too vulnerable. Lucky she was asleep, he'd thought. He couldn't have dealt with _her_ rejection.

And yet here she was, saying she loved him back? It just wasn't done, not in Jake's terrible experience. "Amy. You don't mean it-" 

Amy as good as lost it, at that.  
Her eyes flashed with barely controlled rage. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TELL ME WHAT I DO OR DO NOT MEAN!! YOU TOLD ME YOU LOVE ME AND YOU _LEFT_ , JACOB! YOU LET ME FLY AWAY!!! YOU CLEARLY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE OF WHAT I FEEL, SO JUST- " At that point, her emotions got the better of her and words were not enough to convey her absolute fury. She let go of his collar, only to bang her small fists against his chest. "You fucking dumbass! Who do you think you are?!" She sobbed, and Jake swallowed down the lump in his throat. 

"Amy- _Amy_! Hey - hey - _hey_ -" Jake curled his fingers around her wrists, gently, to try and stop the attack, and pulled her towards him, so their torsos were touching. She let out another sob and Jake faltered, but didn't stop. 

"Amy, listen, please. Please." She still tried to fight him, but with reduced force, like she was doing it for the sake of doing it. 

Jake took a deep breath, and continued. "I'm not going to take back what I said. I love you. I do."

She twisted her wrists, trying to relinquish his hold on her. "Then why did you let me go!" She yelled at him. A bit of spit flew into his eye, but he tactfully decided to ignore it. She'd only just stopped hitting him.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, _so_ sorry. I made the biggest mistake by letting you go, Amy, and I accept that, and I'm so _fucking happy_ you are here right now." Jake stammered, his voice getting stronger with every word. 

His words were followed by a pause, where the world stood still. And then her fists that were throwing punches at him, curled into his hair, and his hands that were holding her forearms, trying to ward off her blows, were holding her waist, trying to pull her impossibly closer. 

As their lips met, Jake felt a deluge of emotions burst into his chest and he could do nothing but hold her tighter, because she was the only thing that could make the heaviness in him go away. He angled his head to deepen the kiss, and she pressed into him even more, as though they were each trying to pull the other _into_ themselves. 

All of a sudden, Jake became aware of something wet on his cheeks, and pulled back to see tears running down Amy's face. He kissed them away, and she cried harder. He started to tear up too, his throat constricting in a way that warned him of impending sobs.

And then- 

"Are you kissing yet?" Charles called through the door.

They broke apart, Amy looking horrified; Jake, sheepish. 

"Boyle, go the fuck home, man!" Jake called out, trying to act nonchalant, like his best friend hadn't spied on one of the most vulnerable moments of his life.

Charles didn't seem daunted in the least. "Okay, I'll give you two some space. See you later, guys!" They stared at each other in shocked silence till the sound of his footsteps faded away. 

"Sorry...he's just...Charles." Jake mumbled quickly.

Amy cry-laughed, wiping her nose on her sleeve.

Jake used his thumb to wipe away the tears. His fingers lingered on her face, caressing, soothing. 

She tried to shoot him a watery smile, but her body was still shaking with tears.

"I made him turn the plane around, Jake," she sobbed. 

"I know. I know." He dropped his forehead to touch hers, and it seemed movie-worthy, this picture they painted. 

She closed her eyes at the contact. "I w-wanted to b-be with you, you _coward _!"__

__He chuckled at that, not bothering to wipe away the tears on his own face. He nodded at her, fervent and eager. "I'm sorry. I'm dumb."_ _

__"That you are. Butthead."_ _

__Slowly, their hands that were gripping the other like they would never let go, began to explore.  
Running down each other's backs at first, then Amy slipped her hand under his flannel and onto bare skin, and he began thumb-massaging her sides. They peppered kisses over jaw and neck and shoulder, tiny nips and pecks that held promises of so much more._ _

__They were still trembling when they undressed each other, cautiously, haltingly, at first but with increasing desperation as more and more layers fell to their feet._ _

__Jake pushed Amy down onto the couch when they were only in their underclothes, and kissed her again. This time was so different from the rest, all passion and heat and fire, but with no sense of urgency. This was them completely living in the moment, unhurried, unflustered._ _

__Amy wrapped her arms across his shoulders, pulling him closer.  
Jake tangled his hands in her hair and pressed a knee between her legs, wanting to deepen the kiss, increase the surface area of skin contact, but the couch was small and narrow and not meant for two writhing adults. They stumbled down, Jake somehow maneuvering himself so that Amy was not crushed under him. _ _

__They froze in shock for a second before Amy threw back her head and let out a shout of laughter._ _

__At least it got her laughing again, Jake thought, and after a minute of embarrassment, he joined in._ _

__She dragged herself onto his chest, so her rumbles of laughter sent vibrations into his body. He thoroughly liked this feeling._ _

__"Sorry," he panted out sheepishly, and he wasn't only talking about the making out fail._ _

__Amy understood. She pushed herself up, straddling him. "I know," she said, and kissed him senseless._ _

__When she pulled back, leaving him gasping for air, Jake needed a minute to compose himself, which is why he didn't realise Amy's intentions until she was half way down to his-_ _

__"Amy, what-"_ _

__She hushed him, and Jake spent the next ten minutes, or ten hours, he couldn't have known; floating in _heaven.__ _

__"Aren't you cute," she cooed at him, before crawling back up to collapse on his chest, after she was done._ _

__"Shut up," he whispered grumpily, but he couldn't keep the happiness from his voice.He immediately wrapped his arms around her, and she snuggled into him._ _

__"You okay?" Amy asked him, after a couple minutes passed by without Jake uttering a word._ _

__"Yeah. I'm just so happy you came," he said, tearful but overjoyed._ _

__"Title of your sex tape!" Amy retorted._ _

__Jake gasped. "You used my joke!Oh, I love you-"_ _

__"Well, I mean- " Amy began, but Jake had reached up to pull her down to him, and how the next few hours flew up, neither of them knew._ _

__They knew nothing else but the warmth of each other bodies, the comfort of each other arms, the taste of sweat and the scent of sex. It was _quite_ the reunion. _ _

__

__*_ _

__

__"What about your family, Ames?" Jake whispered to her later, when they were lying, naked and spent, on Jake's bed._ _

__She propped herself up on her elbows to look at him. She was smiling, but there was a hint of sadness in her eyes. She reached out to brush his hair off of his forehead. "I don't regret coming back, Jake," she murmured._ _

__He smiled at her, relief lighting up his features. "Well, I'm glad. But you did want to see them-"_ _

__She nodded along at his words and took a deep breath before beginning. "To be honest...I never thought I was going to make it. I mean, who has planes and pilots lying around? It just seemed so impossible, and you were being so tight-lipped about who it was - I _understand now_ , because of your dad- but how was I to know that? I was sceptical about the whole thing from the start, and that's why, that day on Teddy's phone...I said goodbye to them."_ _

__Jake sat up slowly, clearly surprised. "What?"_ _

__She sat up too, next to him, and pulled her knees to her chest. She laid her head on his shoulder, and sighed. "Yeah. I made my peace with the fact I'd never see them again. My parents said they were proud of me, and my brothers said they loved me, and we cried and everything. _Oh!_ By the way, it was Tony who'd slept with Rosa. _Thank god_ it wasn't _David_."_ _

__She fell silent as he played with her hair, unsure of what to say next. He was _beyond_ happy that she'd made it back, but he was still worried._ _

__She raised her head, and pulled his chin to her so that he would look at her. "I didn't actually believe your dad, I thought we'd wake the next morning and he'd be like, 'sorry, I forgot that I ran out of jet fuel!' or something, and then we would drive back to Brooklyn, and spend the rest of our days breaking into empty apartments and plundering their cupboards for food." She laughed. "I don't think I actually believed it, till I was 35 thousand feet above the ground."_ _

__"When did you wake up?"_ _

__"During take off! The pressure changes - my ears hurt like hell. And I woke up gasping and it took me ten minutes to be able to talk. And the first thing I said to your dad was... _did he say he loved me?_ And he was like yes -" ("I knew he was listening!" Jake muttered.)" and I was like well, turn the plane around and he was like ' _huh_?!!?' and he thought I was joking. We argued for a while, but he agreed in the end. And then I took Teddy's car, but it ran out of gas, so I hitchhiked and walked to Springfield, just so I could yell at your stupid face."_ _

__Jake bit his lip to hide his smile. "I'm honoured."_ _

__Amy rolled her eyes at him. "It sucks that I'll never get to see them again, but it would have sucked more, if I never got to tell you -"_ _

__"Tell me what?" Jake held his breath._ _

__"I love you too, Jake. I cant explain it, I know its too soon, but I feel it. I love you." She smiled at him, lovely and pure, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead._ _

__"I love you, Ames."_ _

__

__*_ _

__

__The last few days before they were blown up, were simultaneously the best and worst days of Jake's life._ _

__They were the best, because he got to spend them with Amy._ _

__Beautiful, bold, bright Amy, whom he found, was incapable of cooking to save her life, did a victory dance to celebrate solving crosswords, and was _so stupid good_ at sex. Amy, who talked in her sleep and woke up at half past six, and kissed him like she'd die if they stopped. Sweet, _sweet_ Amy, who held him close and asked him to tell her stories about his mom and his Nana. She laughed at his stupid jokes, and when they were done with the day, read to him from Harry Potter, (they managed to salvage the books from her otherwise destroyed apartment) doing voices and gestures because she'd realised that's the way he liked it._ _

__Honestly, Jake couldn't pinpoint a period in his life where he'd been happier. However, he could not shake away the dread that this was all going away soon, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. And that's why this final fortnight was the absolute worst._ _

__But when Amy ran her fingers through his hair and placed tiny kisses over his neck, he could forget it. At least for a little while._ _

__They didn't talk about it. They completely ignored the fact that Matilda was arriving, sooner than later, and they lived life like tomorrow would always come._ _

__They went on pretend dates. They baked cookies in the middle of the night. (Jake baked, Amy perched herself on the counter and munched on chocolate chips and commented on Jake's nice butt.) They went out to Charles's for lunch and agreed to never do that again (as if they didn't have only a week left to live). They took long, long walks, "like an old married couple", Jake stated, which caused a bit of awkwardness at first, but Jake's obvious discomfort sent Amy into a frenzy of giggles, and Jake chased her down the street, tickling her until she begged him to stop._ _

__He learnt that she was extremely ticklish. He learnt where she liked to be touched. He learned where she _loved_ to be touched. They did the do, quite a lot of it.  
Amy was into researching and experimenting and making observations and conclusions, and this reached into their sex life as well. Jake, who'd declared that he was up for anything the bedroom, was introduced to what 'anything' could include, and he was _loving it._ _ _

__They made bets; stupid, useless bets (who could boil eggs faster, who could quote movie dialogues better, who could, ahem, _get there_ faster) that served no better purpose than entertainment. They were introduced to each other's competitive sides, and Jake found that this just made him love her _even more._ _ _

__She made him drink water, eight disgusting glasses per day, and he acquiesced, only throwing minor tantrums while she cajoled him into ' _just two more glasses, babe, you can do it_.' _ _

__He couldn't remember when babe became a regular part of their vocabulary. (Somewhere between day 4 and day 5, Jake thought) but hearing Amy saying an exasperated 'babe!?' while he explained just exactly _how_ he trashed the kitchen making pancakes, was the best sound in the world._ _

__He was loving absolutely every second of his days with her, and he never ever wanted it to end._ _

__But end, it had to._ _

__

__*_ _

__

_When I only want for you to pull over  
And hold me  
Till I can't remember my own name_

-Joanna Newsom, _Good Intentions Paving Company_

__

__On that day, they could tell it was happening, because the sky darkened, and stayed that way. The air was still and the earth, for the first time since its creation, was quiet._ _

__Jake and Amy woke up to this strange atmosphere and Jake knew, instinctively, that he would never get to leave his bed again._ _

__"It's happening," he whispered to Amy, and she nodded. She was spooning him from behind, and he could feel her arms shaking._ _

__"I'm scared," she admitted._ _

__He turned around in her embrace and pulled her into his chest. "Me too."_ _

__They stayed like that for a while. Above them, the swirling dust made the air murkier and the sun dimmed. The meteor was casting its shadow over the earth, over the world, over Jake and Amy. The very thought made Jake shiver._ _

__"I wish we had more time together." Amy whispered, raising her head to look at him, her eyes filled with unshed tears._ _

__"It wouldn't have been enough." Jake stated, matter-of-factly. And he knew it was true. He could have spent _lifetimes_ with Amy without getting tired of seeing her glowing face waking him up in the morning, of listening to her sing horribly in the shower, of feeling her fingers running through his hair as she muttered his name, of tasting her on his tongue._ _

__"Any amount of time with you, would have been far too less. No matter how much time we had, I'd always want more. And more."_ _

__She rolled her eyes at him, weakly, but pushed herself into him at the same time. It was as if they couldn't be close enough._ _

__"Maybe in another life," he continued. "Maybe in another life, where there was no meteor, and where we'd have accomplished everything we wanted. You'd have gotten through the academy. We'd have lived in Brooklyn."_ _

__"I like that." Amy said, simply. "We'd have been detectives. Maybe we would have worked at the same precinct!"_ _

__Jake nodded. Somewhere, from the outside, there was the rumbling of thunder, and Amy clutched his T-shirt so tightly that Jake was sure she'd tear the material._ _

__He pulled her closer, so that their faces were at the same level, noses almost touching. Their legs were tangled up in each others' and the blankets, and their hands were up each other's shirts, caressing skin, feeling warmth, trying to feel comfort._ _

__Amy looked like she was a second away from a breakdown, so Jake scrambled to bring her back to him. "Yeah, we'd have worked together." He told her, speaking fast and loud. "And obviously, I'd have been the best detective at the precinct, so you'd be jealous of me-"_ _

__Some of the spark came back into her eyes. "Oh puh- _lease_. You'd have constantly been getting into trouble and looking to _me_ to haul your ass out." _ _

__Jake fake-scoffed. "You'd always be getting one-upped by me. Then we'd have made a bet to see who got the most felony arrests, to resolve the argument for once and for all. I would've won."_ _

__Amy flicked his earlobe. "Buuuut- in the process of winning that bet, you'd have fallen in love with me."_ _

__"I'm not gonna deny that." Jake grinned at her. "I'd take you on a fancy date, not like my other cheap dates, because I'd know you were special from the start. We'd start dating, and it would have been _amazing as hell_. You'd have made me read tons of books."_ _

__"And, made you change your mattress." Amy wiggled disdainfully in his arms. She'd been complaining about his lumpy mattress since the day she'd arrived, but since her apartment was destroyed and the world was ending, there wasn't much they could do about it._ _

__"No way!" Jake whined. She threw him a glare. "I might be fine doing it for you, though." He conceded._ _

__"And then?" Amy asked, softly. He smiled at her. He was really getting into this little game, too._ _

__"And then...well you know. The usual, I guess. Meeting each other's families. Moving in together."_ _

__"We'd have so many adventures too, being detectives. You'd be the impulsive one, jumping into situations headfirst. I'd be the cool and collected one. We'd make a great team."_ _

__Yeah, we would." Jake laughed. A tingle went down his spine. Her words felt like he was being dipped in a warm cloud of love._ _

__She nuzzled closer, nudging him to continue the fairy-tale they were spinning._ _

__"Well, I would've asked you to marry me. Elaborate proposal and everything, maybe like a treasure hunt or a puzzle, since you love solving those so much."_ _

__Amy giggled. "I would've said yes."_ _

__"We would have had a small wedding. Close friends and family."_ _

__"Wed have gone on a great honeymoon. Somewhere with sea and sun."_ _

__"We'd have had kids."_ _

__Jake looked at her questioningly. Kids weren't something he'd ever really considered, but then he had a flash of himself holding a half-Cuban baby, with Amy's nose and his curls, and he was filled with a sudden longing. "Yeah. A boy and then a girl, and then maybe another boy. And maybe another girl after?"_ _

__"Four kids?!"_ _

__"Why not? Didn't your parents have, like, a bajillion-"_ _

__Amy poked his kidney, but she was smirking. "Being pregnant is no joke, Peralta. I would have loved to watch you struggle with stinky diapers, though."_ _

__"Hey! I would love my kids, stinky poo and all."_ _

__Amy chuckled at him, exasperated yet fond. She brought her fingers upto his cheek and rubbed at the spot he'd missed while shaving. His eyes closed at the touch._ _

__Wrapped up in their blissful dreams, the couple had barely noticed that the sky outside had turned as black as night._ _

__But then the rumbling of thunder gave way to huge booms, and flashes of lightning lit up the air. Jake could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up on edge, and his heart began to beat faster._ _

__There was a huge shake. Amy buried herself into him and he wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her so hard that it had to hurt, but she didn't protest. They could feel the pounding of each others hearts._ _

__Jake nudged her with her nose, and when she looked up at him, he pulled her into a kiss. It was tender, it was urgent, it was desperate. He sought her touch, he sought her warmth, he sought her presence._ _

__She was the very first and the very last thing he wanted to feel._ _

__Amy broke off the kiss to stare unblinking, into his eyes. She was scared, before, but Jake could tell now she wasn't, not any more. Her eyes were filled with steely determination, but her gaze softened as she looked at him._ _

__"Hey. Another life." She told him._ _

__"Another life," he agreed._ _

__"I love you." She whispered to him, her lips merely millimeters from his._ _

__"I love you too." He gasped out, overwhelmed. "So, so much."_ _

__"More than Die Hard?" She questioned, her eyes teasing._ _

__"Hmmmm," he pretended to think, and she laughed, laughed out loud, and Jake felt it was the sound of angels singing._ _

__"More than anything in this world. Which is not saying much, I know, since there isn't going to be much left, now. But I hope you get the sentiment-"_ _

__She was still laughing, putting her lips over his to shut him up. And then he was laughing, and then the both of them were laughing, wrapped up in each other, like a newborn in its swaddle._ _

__

__Death approached them in the form of a bright, fiery ball from the sky. They spent their last few moments laying in each other's arms, forgetting about the world for their last few seconds of life. They watched each other without looking away, wanting their face to be the last thing they ever saw._ _

__

__The last thing Jake would hear would be Amy's tinkling laughter._ _

__The last thing Jake would smell would be Amy's musk and the toaster whose circuit she'd ruined, the burnt smell lingering in the apartment for days._ _

__The last thing Jake would think of, would be Amy._ _

__And he wouldn't have it any other way._ _

__There was an almighty roar from the outside, as if the earth itself was screeching. Jake's whole universe narrowed to a point. Amh said something, but he couldn't hear her, so he just clutched onto her, harder._ _

__She smiled at him - then there were her warm fingers, interlacing through his own, and squeezing hard - and then there was her laugh, ringing in his ears - and there were only her eyes, bright and shiny and smiley, and so full of her love for him._ _

__For a second, there was all Amy, only Amy - and then there was nothing._ _

__

__THE END_ _

__

__

___I'll get this joy off of my chest, at last_  
_And I will love you_  
_Till the noise has long since passed_

\- Joanna Newsom, _Good Intentions Paving Company_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaaand. There we have it.  
>  _Finito._
> 
> Before I sign off, on this story at least, I do want to address the current situation our world is facing. Whenever we go through difficulties, I know first hand how inviting and comforting it is to want to disappear into fiction, away from traumatic reality, but the truth is and always will be that the world, our people around us, need help and support, and should always be a priority, to the best of out abilities.  
> I don't know what is going to happen to B99 in the future, but I do accept it is pro-cop propaganda, and defunding the police seems like a very, very good idea. I will always love the characters the show brought alive for us, (maybe I do have an unhealthy attachment to them), but I know that the real world needs more from me right now. And I will try to give it my best. To all readers, who love to vanish into fictional worlds like me, please consider taking a moment to check out this link. I have. 
> 
> [time for change](https://t.co/3wp3gDdDs1?amp=1)
> 
> Kudos and comments much appreciated! Love y'all. Keep safe, and take care.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! As you must have guessed, this story is set in the universe of the movie 'Seeking A Friend for the End of the World.' Watched it recently, and since I can't stop thinking about the wonderful season 7 we just got, I guess my brain mashed the two up, and here we are.  
> At any point in the story, if you feel that I should change the rating, or add a trigger warning, please let me know!  
> Thank you for reading!  
> This story is mostly written out, so I hope I can update regularly, at least twice a week!  
> Comments and Kudos much appreciated!


End file.
